This book provides background, reference material, and guidance to design professionals, building owners, and contractors on existing masonry. Construction characteristics of masonry structures, typical material properties, and analytical approaches are included for historic, transitional, and modern masonry construction typologies. The main focus of the book is structural stabilization, strengthening, and retrofit with maintenance and serviceability items (such as water penetration and cleaning) addressed as subtopics.This book also incorporates discussion on the evaluation and retrofit process, site investigation and analysis, retrofit, monitoring, and maintenance. Assessment and retrofit projects conducted by the authors are presented as case studies to highlight technical issues and illustrate the process of developing a rational methodology for different types of masonry assessment and retrofit projects.Assessment and retrofit projects conducted by the authors are presented in a special Chapter as case studies to highlight technical issues and illustrate the process of developing a rational assessment and retrofit methodology for different types of masonry assessment and retrofit projects.

Major portion devoted to design and estimating of load-carrying capacity of masonry structures under common basic loading conditions.