National Association of Women in Masonry

Welcome to the National Association for Women in Masonry (NAWM). This website has been created to highlight the association while also providing an information base to help anyone wishing to enter this field. To that end we are continually publishing informational articles on a variety of subjects within the sphere of building, masonry and home improvements to cover every aspect of this wide and vast topic.

Seattle-based NAWM has its mission to create an environment through education, training, and networking that enhances the leadership skills of women in the building industry. NAWM was founded to help to build a large community of women who are devoted to leadership and also to offer many opportunities for their ongoing education and training. By doing so, this will create many opportunities for the continued inclusion of women in the fields of building, concrete and stone masonry while leading to a greater recognition of all our achievements.

Additional Information

In order to build this site into a solid repository of useful and usable information on all aspects of building, construction, finishing and home refurbishment and improvement, we are adding informational articles originally written for this site. They will cover many aspects of construction in both a domestic as well as business side of things. Here are just some of the areas we will be covering:

Patio and Terrace

The outdoor space of many homes is a useful area to socialize in and a well laid up patio or terrace is great place to do this. It must be remembered that good workmanship and a professional build and quality finish are great qualities by which to judge the best hard standing outdoor areas. Of course once they have been laid up, it makes a lot of sense to adorn them with well placed decorative plants and some nice furniture. Its worth reading some good patio furniture reviews to ensure you get the right type of outdoor furniture to match your outdoor space because you certainly don’t want anything to appear out of place.

Garage and Outbuildings

While most emphasis is generally placed on the house or main building itself, some additional thought should be given to garages and other outbuildings such as a workshop, brick or stone sheds and other solid structures. When considering the building of such structures, remember to take into account the need for professional skilled labor to ensure a safe and solid build.

The growing number of articles that will be and are already published here are all related to the building and stone masonry industry so that the information database grows into a reference for anyone who needs to extend their knowledge into further subjects that are incorporated withing this industry.

National Association for Women in Masonry

Many people are apprehensive to buy a mini fridge knowing that many of these appliances do not have a freezer feature. While this is often true, there are also mini fridges that have built in separate freezer – usually mounted on top.

If you are looking for a mini refrigerator with accompanying freezer functionality, then don’t choose those portable mini fridges that have a capacity of 5 cu. ft. or under. They are generally the ones that only offer refrigeration features, but no freezer features.

Choose a mini refrigerator that has two-doorse (one for the refrigerator and one for freezer) with capacity of at least 7 cu. ft. up but not more than 14 cu. ft. Usually the best deals for this specific design are for sizes in between these two extremes.

Mini refrigerators (otherwise referred to as portable refrigerators or compact fridges) are a special type  of refrigerator that combines space saving features with functionality and portability. To meet the increasing demands of todays fast paced world, mini fridges are oftentimes preferred over standard sized models because it is easy to carry or move them around from one place to the other.

The smallest portable fridges you will come across with are those that can only accommodate 1.6 cu. ft. capacity more or less, like Frigidaire’s LFP16M4LB compact fridge or Koolatron’s Coca-Cola fridges that can hold up to 28 beverage cans. But be warned that these types of mini fridges don’t have dual refrigerator-freezer functionality.

When it comes time for spring gardening, it always pays to think ahead. For me, as soon as I clean out the flower beds in the fall, I am already thinking of what I want to do for the upcoming spring. As we live in the North where we get a lot of snow, we have plenty of time to plan.

One of my favorite resources when it comes to gardening is the local library. I will check out all their gardenign books so that I can find new ways to improve my gardening skills. One of my plans for the spring is to try out raised flower bed gardening. As we have alot of mature trees on our lot, their root system seems to suck up any available moisture so when we have tried planting a vegetable garden before, it has not done very well.This year we will try the raised garden to see if it makes a difference. When it comes time for weeding, one of the tools that I use for keeping my garden free from weeds is my Winged Weeder – a tool that I use to hoe, weed and use for edging my flower beds.

Every kitchen needs to have appliances that help make household chores easier and more convenient. Appliances like refrigerators, which provide the basic function of preserving and keeping food fresh, helps us same time and money.

Among the different appliances built and produced, refrigerators have become one of the most important and needed appliances in the kitchen. Without at the very least a small refrigerator, kitchens cannot function properly, making it inconvenient and uneconomical for people since they would have to deal with food problems such as food’s limited shelf life.

People would be forced to consume the food items they purchase immediately to avoid them being spoiled. This can be very uneconomical since food waste is one of the most wasteful spending problems that many households experience.

Choosing a refrigerator to furnish the kitchen depends on the consumer’s need and preferences. Most average sized kitchens use a standard sized refrigerator and freezer, depending on the number of occupants living in the household. Smaller households with just one or two members often prefer just using a small refrigerator for their kitchen. These small refrigerators like the mini fridges are great at optimizing kitchen space to accommodate other appliances. Despite their small size, they still manage to keep food fresh and safe for consumption. They are ideal for small kitchen and living quarters such as apartments and college dormitories.

When buying a refrigerator don’t just pick the cheapest one. Sometimes, buying the more expensive brands is advantageous since they are guaranteed to be of higher quality, efficiency, reliability and durability. They also give added benefits, such as longer warranties and ready availability of replacement parts of their units. This is quiet important especially if you should ever need to have your unit repaired, so buying refrigerators like GE can be advantageous since you can be sure that there are available parts for GE refrigerators just in case they need replacement.

One of the thing that you will probably want to try your hand at is laying up a nice looking stone wall. There are a few ways of doing this depending upon how skilled you are or how much time you want to spend on learning how to do it by trial and error. This article will deal with a mortared stone wall as opposed to the more traditional dry stone wall that you often see in farmed fields and open pastures in the countryside.

First of all, trial and error when applied to the building of a stone wall can be a long and arduous job, because you are going to male more mistakes than you will want to and each one can be costly because often you don’t notice your mistake until you have added one or more courses of stone and mortar. That means taking it all off and going back to the errant stone placement. Not a nice job. But one thing’s for sure, if you make that kind of mistake, you will be pretty unlikely to make it again!

Traditionally Mortared Stone Wall

The traditional way of laying up a mortared stone wall is to literally do it stone by stone. That means having a good eye for a straight line both horizontally and vertically. The use of a good spirit level is a necessity as well as a length of good old reliable string to keep things on the straight and level. Apart from understanding the need to have a pre-laid foundation base to carry the weight or the wall (so it doesn’t go sinking into the earth below) and the careful placement of each course of stones so that each stone is placed across the join between two stones below (and, naturally above) in the formation of “two over one” then the rest is pretty straightforward.

This article assumes you already know how to mix and make the mortar for your wall. The consistency of the mortar needs to be similar to that of bricklaying and you need to make sure the individual stones are clean. A large bucket of water and a scrubbing brush are usually good enough to get most of the foreign material off the stone’s surface so that it is clean enough for the mortar to stick.

Slip Form Stone Wall

If you want a slightly easier to lay up wall, then using slip forms is a good way especially if your eye for that all important straight line is not as accurate as you’d like it to be. This method uses pre-formed shuttering to encase the newly laid wall on each side, creating ready made straight lines both horizontally and vertically, although you will still need that spirit level to prove levels. See image below of four slip forms laid together to form a part of the intended wall:

The forms are created by taking lengths of plywood board in whatever dimensions you can get them but the length should be no more than twelve feet and the height no more than three feet. You then strengthen each form with lengths of 2×2 softwood planks laid horizontally one at the top and one at the bottom of each board with vertical noggins to give added strength. You need to be able to lift each form, which is the reason for the size limitation. Two forms are then laid out with one on each side of the intended wall’s width. You’ll need to leave a generous width to accommodate two stones one either side plus some space in the centre for the back-filled concrete that gives the wall its strength and cohesion. Additional forms are laid end-to-end to create the desired length, depending on how many forms you can afford to have.

Once the foundation has been laid and is set and the forms are in place, you can start placing your chosen stones with the best face facing outwards on each side, butted up against the sides of the forms (shutters). Then you in-fill the space between them with concrete. For a stronger wall (and especially if you intend it to be of any appreciable height) you can add steel rebar mesh in the centre of the wall for added strength.

Once you have reached the height of the first row of forms, you then place the second row on top of the lower row, wiring each side together to stop it moving and battening along the top. then continue laying the stones and backfilling with concrete. If a further level is required for extra height, the lower forms are removed and placed atop the second row of forms, and work continued.

Its a lot simpler this way and you get a very straight, accurate and constant width wall. Once the concrete has all dried and you remove the forms, you can point between the stones or leave for a more natural looking finish.

There are few more satisfying tasks that can be undertaken outdoors on a property than laying a great looking patio with block paving. When it is done correctly, it looks great and is a joy to spend time on. That means it has to be perfectly flat and even with no protruding edges for people to trip over while being laid square and straight and lasting the test of time. How do you achieve that result?

There are one or two ways of getting the perfect patio laid where you want it to be and that will be dictated by the area and placement you have decided upon in respect to the location of your house and any landscaping aspects. The best and longest lasting patio will have a concrete base that is reinforced with steel. This is also the most expensive option but one that pays for itself over time because it is virtually maintenance free and will stand up to heavy use by people and garden machinery being wheeled across it such as lawnmowers, wheelbarrows full of sand, rubble or earth etc.

With a concrete base, you get a perfectly flat, level and (as long as it was prepared correctly) square foundation to lay your paving blocks onto. The depth of the base is fairly important, as too thin and it could crack and too thick and you could have problems with drainage especially if it ends up too high in respect to the house floor levels. Opt for around 6 inches thick and you will be okay. Depending on the area you want paved, you may need to hire a cement truck to pour the wet concrete as it may be too large to do by hand and you really want all the wet concrete poured at the same time so it all sets evenly. Plus its easy to level using a long, straight steel bar or plank of wood laid across the enclosing sides, which themselves should have been prepared straight and checked with a spirit level to give a very slight drop away from the house so when it rains, water will naturally drain away from the house.

With the concrete slab laid and dry, and for this it usually takes a few days to completely dry right through depending on thickness and how dry the earth is below (and it doesn’t rain, in which case you will need to cover the slab with a large tarpaulin), you can now set about laying the paving blocks. This is relatively easy as your base is already level so your main concern is with making sure the blocks are laid in straight rows with a small gap in between each for pointing with cement. You can get small plastic cross shaped spacers that you place at each corner of each block as you lay them to give you the perfect gaps.

Use cement or a cement/adhesive mix to set the blocks onto and also keep checking for straight lines with the steel bar or wooden plank you used to level the base. Once all the blocks have been laid and pointed using the same cement or cement/adhesive mix you set them on, you can stand back, admire your handiwork and wait for it to dry before letting loose the family!

One of the most widely used of all building and construction materials around the world is concrete as can be seen from most cities and their buildings and general layout. Concrete is used for erecting huge edifices to small sheds, building roads, sidewalks, pathways and a whole host of other constructional objects. So what is concrete and what is involved in working with it?

Concrete is merely a mixture of cement, sand and aggregate, which the latter usually takes the form of smallish pieces of gravel, although different countries use different aggregates for this depending upon local supplies. Water is added to this mixture and the result is a sloppy textured, gray colored mud-like sludge that is poured into place within wooden or steel molds and left to set to a hard, durable finish.

For smaller jobs, the concrete is generally mixed by a workman using a small mixer, which is a machine with a hollow drum that spins using an electric or gas powered motor where the ingredients are introduced and allowed to mix. The resultant concrete is then poured directly into place where possible or tipped out into wheelbarrows to be manhandled to where it needs to be placed. Larger areas are usually filled from cement trucks that bring the “readymix” concrete onto site and can hold over a cubic yard of concrete, depending on the size of the truck.

Concrete on its own is strong but not very tensile and to increase its strength, steel bars (rebar) and mesh are placed where the concrete is to be laid. The concrete completely envelops the steel and when it sets hard, is extremely strong and resistant to movement. This makes it the perfect medium for the construction industry in the building of all kinds of edifices right up to tall skyscrapers.

Working with concrete is fairly simple, although some safety precautions ought to be observed. Avoid getting it on your hands or exposed skin as it contains lime which is mildly corrosive and constant exposure to skin can result in cracked and deeply cut hands and fingers which are both painful and slow to heal.