CMDC Services

Whether it be for engineers, architects, masonry contractors, professors or students, CMDC offers informed expert advice on everything masonry.

CMDC is actively involved in monitoring and guiding research projects across Canada. Through the Canadian Masonry Research Council (CMRC), the CMDC along with the CCMPA have been able push for research, education and sustained masonry content in Canadian Universities.

The CMDC offers a variety of courses and seminars with the goal of educating the engineering community so they can confidently design with masonry.

CMDC partnered with the Canadian Concrete Masonry Producers Association (CCMPA) to develop a powerful software package called MASS. MASS analyzes and designs masonry beams, out-of-plane walls, and single storey shear wall elevations with openings and movement joints using current CSA standards.

The CMDC sits on several of the CSA boards and committees to develop and shape the CSA Standards in a way that is beneficial to the expanded use of masonry. This is closely tied with our work in Research, getting the tests and data needed to support masonry’s role in an evolving building code.

Masonry Structures, Behaviour and Design by Drysdale and Hamid is a comprehensive resource that every designer should have in their reference collection. It has been edited, published and endorsed by the Canada Masonry Design Centre and what sets it apart from other masonry resources are the detailed design examples, showing each step from start to finish.