Solid masonry construction has been used for thousands of years. The world’s oldest buildings are solid masonry. Solid masonry is a construction technique in which you have a wall or pier, or buttress… made up of masonry without any voids. These walls are usually load bearing and also double as the exterior weather proofing and possibly the interior finish as well. Typical materials used to build solid masonry are stone or brick. A solid masonry brick wall will be made up of multiple wythes of brick (in other words the wall will be multiple bricks thick). Many skyscrapers of the early 1900’s were built of solid masonry brick walls up to 6 feet thick at the base (the American Skyscraper 1850 – 1940 – a Celebration in Height). Solid masonry stone construction was very common to the Ottawa area a century ago. Many farmhouses were built with this technique as well as many of Ottawa’s heritage buildings such us the Parliament buildings. If maintained, solid masonry construction can last for centuries.