Masonry is one of the oldest construction materials that is in use around the world for reasons due to its accessibility, functionality and cost. Masonry buildings are the major building stock around the world, fail in earthquakes mainly because of their low tensile and shear resistance. These masonry structures are retrofitted with FRP composites is found to increase its seismic performance. Experimental studies on masonry wallettes and shear triplet specimens with and without retrofitting using GFRP composites were conducted under monotonic loading. The increase in deformation limit and ultimate load resistance of the retrofitted wallettes and triplets were compared to that of control specimens. Finite element (FE) models were created, and the results were verified with experimental data. Macromodeling was adopted for the analysis of masonry wallettes. Shear triplets were analyzed by micromodeling. Parametric studies were conducted to study the changes in the deformation limit and ultimate load resistance for varying thickness of GFRP composites and fiber orientations. It is concluded that GFRP composites retrofitting increases the strength and stiffness of wallettes and strength and ductility of shear triplets. © 2006 Composites in Civil Engineering, CICE 2006. All rights reserved.