Engineers are not often exclusively responsible for locating wall openings on their masonry design projects. However, they are responsible for advising the owner on ways to minimize labor and material costs on the job. There are many strategies which can reduce unnecessary costs in masonry construction, but are you aware of a simple change which can result in massive savings on masonry construction projects?

In the September 2024 SEU session, Scott Walkowicz, PE, from Walkowicz Consulting Engineers, presented Masonry Design and Detailing: Using Your Owner’s Money Wisely.  Scott discussed the structural performance benefits and building improvements achieved through the use of masonry, as both a structure and an outer envelope.  He identified ways to reduce cost and minimize material waste in masonry design and detailing.  He also examined masonry details to create functional, durable, and constructable masonry assemblies.

A huge cost savings on masonry jobs can be eliminating the need for saw cutting blocks to accommodate off-modular spacing or openings.  Scott mentioned that up to 1-3% of the masonry package can be spent on the labor costs associated with saw cutting blocks.  A best practice to minimize these additional costs is for engineers and architects to specify openings and spacing of openings to align with modular blocks.  As shown in the slide below, a significant number of blocks would require saw cutting when openings are located offset from the modular spacing.  

A better layout is shown below, which locates the opening both horizontally and vertically to avoid off-module saw cuts.  On a standard job site, masonry suppliers include a certain number of half-blocks, which eliminates the need for saw cutting when everything aligns with standard unit sizing.

Engineers can also advocate to architects to consider this issue early in the design process.  Reducing saw cuts on the jobsite will always result in a lower cost for the owner, so consideration should be given to maintaining proper modular spacing for openings.