c/bricklayers

12

willow_garcia•2d ago

Unpopular opinion: The brickwork at the new downtown library isn't all that great

I went to check out the new public library over on 5th Street last Saturday, and I gotta say I was disappointed with the brickwork on the front facade. Everyone keeps raving about it online, but up close you can see uneven mortar joints and a couple spots where the color blending is just off. I've been cleaning houses for years so I notice little details, and those uneven lines bug me. The pattern they used is cool in theory, but the execution feels rushed. Maybe I'm just being picky, but for a building that cost $4 million, I expected tighter work. Has anyone else walked by and noticed the same thing, or am I alone on this?

13

paulw63•3d ago

That Tuesday I laid 800 bricks in 6 hours and blew my back out

Last summer I had a perfect run of weather and all my cuts were spot on for a retaining wall job in Cleveland. Started at 6am and by noon I had 800 bricks down with no breaks because the mortar was setting perfect. Thing is my back locked up at 2pm so bad I couldnt stand straight for two days and my foreman had to finish the last 200 bricks. Has anyone else had a killer production day turn into a recovery nightmare?

17

hannah_wright•4d ago

Unpopular opinion: Hand mixing mortar is better than using a machine for small jobs

I used to use a mixer for everything, but after a 20-square-foot garden wall last month, I tried mixing by hand on a board and the mortar felt way more consistent. The machine seemed to leave dry pockets in the batch no matter how long I ran it. Am I crazy or does hand mixing actually give you better control on tight work?

27

lee_gibson•4d ago

The way I stack brick changed completely after watching an old mason from Italy work for 20 minutes

I had this guy come through a site I was on in St. Louis last summer, must have been 70 years old. He laid about 300 brick in the time it took me to do 150, and his joints were tighter than anything I've ever done. The difference was he never stopped moving his trowel hand even to pick up a new brick. He'd scoop mortar, flip the brick, tap it, all in one fluid motion. I tried copying his rhythm the next day and my output went up maybe 40 percent after a week of screwing it up. Has anyone else picked up a weird trick from watching some random old-timer on a job?

25

jordanl82•19d ago

Rant: I swore by wet saw blades until I tried a dry one on some old pavers

Been laying brick for 8 years and always thought wet cutting was the only way to go, no question. Last month I borrowed a buddy's dry diamond blade for a patio job in Denver and it cut through those old clay pavers cleaner with way less chipping. Anyone else made the switch and found it works better for certain materials?

23

verafoster•19d ago

Stop slapping mortar on wet bricks - ruins your bond

Was on a job in Raleigh last month and saw a new guy buttering bricks that were still damp from rain. Mortar just slid right off. Old foreman told me dry bricks suck the moisture out of the mortar, wet bricks make it runny. Both kill your bond strength. Anyone else had a crew ignore this and get callbacks for weak walls?

31

willow_garcia•19d ago

Why does nobody talk about how old lime mortar beats portland cement on old brick walls

I was repointing a 1920s house in Cleveland last month and kept fighting cracks in my portland cement mix. An old mason walked by and told me I was basically gluing bricks to plastic wrap. He showed me a lime mortar mix he uses and it flexes with the wall instead of fighting it. I did a test patch and after two weeks of drying the lime side has zero cracks while the portland side already has hairline fractures. Has anyone else dealt with this difference on historic homes?

23

wesley_thompson•20d ago

Checked out a new housing development in Raleigh last week and noticed the brickwork along the foundation was already showing cracks

They used a soft brick that wasn't rated for ground contact and didn't leave any expansion gaps, so those walls are going to start bowing within a year - has anyone else seen builders cutting corners like this with cheaper materials?

20

james_ramirez•20d ago

That level of disapproval I had for laser levels finally broke after 8 years

I always swore by my old string lines and spirit levels, thought lasers were just for guys who couldn't snap a chalk line straight. Last month on a retaining wall job in Austin, my partner brought out his green beam rig and I watched him lay out 40 feet of block in the time it takes me to pull a tape. Has anyone else been humbled by a tool you thought was just overpriced gadgetry?

18

kelly.daniel•20d ago

I switched to a fat joint for my corners and it messed up my whole rhythm

Always heard the pros say use a skinny joint for corners so I did it for 5 years, but tried a heaping fat one last week on a fireplace project in Denver and the lines came out way cleaner. Has anyone else had better luck going against the standard advice on joint size?

3

michael_patel•21d ago

Old timer told me to soak my bricks before laying them and I figured he was being dramatic

I skipped it on a hot July job in Phoenix and three of the bricks sucked the moisture right out of the mortar before I could even tap them level, has anyone else had that happen on a dry day?

3

jordan330•21d ago

Renovated a 1920s brick wall in St. Louis and the difference after repointing was night and day

I took on this old brick wall at a house in the South City neighborhood that was built in 1923. The mortar was crumbling out in chunks, like you could stick a screwdriver in there 2 inches deep. After grinding out the old joints and repointing with a lime-based mix over 3 days, the wall went from looking like a wreck to solid and clean. The client said it looked brand new but still kept that old character they wanted. Has anyone else had a job where repointing totally saved a wall from needing to be torn down?

10

graym49•23d ago

Comparing a mud mixer to hand mixing mortar changed how I work now

I used to mix all my mortar by hand with a hoe in a tub for small jobs. Took me about 20 minutes per batch and my arms were dead by lunch. Then a guy on a site in Austin let me borrow his electric mud mixer last week. One batch took maybe 5 minutes and the consistency was way more even. Now I'm thinking about picking up a used one for like $100. Anyone else make that switch and notice a big difference in fatigue?

9

chen.fiona•24d ago

Tried a herringbone pattern on a small garden wall last week

I was just messing around on a 4-foot retaining wall in my backyard in Austin and decided to try a herringbone layout with some old red clay bricks I had laying around. It actually came out way better than I expected, even though I had to cut like 15 bricks with my cheap chisel and it took me almost 6 hours total for a tiny wall. The pattern really pops from the street now, but I learned you gotta plan the cuts way ahead or you'll mess up the flow halfway through. Has anyone else tried herringbone on something small and had it get way more attention than you thought it would?

15

adam_hernandez•24d ago

Just realized my brick cleaning method was wrecking old facades

I used to hit every old brick wall with a pressure washer at full blast, like 3000 psi, thinking I was getting them super clean. Then last month I was working on a 1920s church in Albany and the historic preservation guy walked over and pointed out how I was basically sandblasting the face off the bricks. He showed me a spot where the outer layer had just flaked away, and I felt like an idiot. Turns out, you gotta use a much lower pressure and a wider nozzle, like 1500 psi max, or even just a stiff brush and water for really old soft bricks. The guy told me "you're not cleaning them, you're speeding up their death" and that stuck with me. Has anyone else messed up old brickwork with too much pressure? What do you use instead?

7

hannah_wright•24d ago

My mortar mix was too wet for a whole month last spring

I kept wondering why my joints looked sloppy and kept cracking, turns out I was adding too much water to the mix on a job in Portland. My foreman pointed it out after I laid about 200 bricks, and the difference was immediate. Any of you guys have a simple trick for getting that exact right consistency every time?

29

wyatt_shah85•26d ago

The difference a simple string line made on my last retaining wall

I've been laying brick for about 8 years now and I always thought I had a good eye for level. Last month I finally got around to fixing that old retaining wall behind my buddy's house in Oak Park. After the first two rows I stopped and grabbed a string line because the mortar joints were starting to look crooked. What a difference it made. Over the next 6 hours I used the line every 3 or 4 bricks and the final product was dead straight compared to my first attempts where I was off by almost half an inch in some spots. I always skipped using a line because I thought it was for rookies. Has anyone else noticed how much cleaner their work looks when they just take the extra 30 seconds to set up a line?

10

barbara84•26d ago

Old timer told me my brick joints were too fat 6 months ago

He said I was wasting mortar and making the wall look sloppy, so I dropped from 3/8 inch down to 1/4 inch joints. Has anyone else had to unlearn a habit from school or was it just me?

10

bettywilson•27d ago

That time I saw a crew buttering every frog-end on a brick wall

I was walking past a job site downtown last Tuesday and stopped to watch a crew laying a garden wall. Every single brick they picked up, they buttered the frog-end with mortar. I stood there for a good 10 minutes counting, and they did that on about 40 bricks in a row. Why would you do that on a garden wall that's only 3 feet tall and not load-bearing? That's just wasted time and material. I've been laying brick for 12 years and I only butter frogs on structural walls or when I'm building a pillar. Doesn't the extra mortar just squeeze out and make a mess you gotta clean up later? Has anyone else noticed newer guys doing this all the time or am I the one who's wrong here?

10

adam_nguyen7•28d ago

The church wall in Millbrook that taught me a lesson about frost lines

I was driving through Millbrook last weekend and saw them restoring that old stone church on Elm Street. What caught my eye was how deep the foundation went, like 4 feet down for a simple one story building. Talked to the foreman for a bit and he said they found the original 1880s footing when they dug it out. That thing was barely 18 inches deep and had shifted almost 3 inches from frost heave. Kinda makes you think about how much we take modern codes for granted. Any of you guys ever run into old foundations that make you cringe?

4

adam_nguyen7•29d ago

Had a perfect day laying brick last Thursday and I still dont know why

Everything just clicked on that job at the old library downtown. My mortar mix was spot on from the first batch and I didn't have to redo a single joint all day. Usually I mess up at least a couple corners or get mortar on the face, but this time it just flowed. Finished the whole wall section by 2pm and the foreman just nodded and walked off. Has anyone else had a day where the work felt almost too easy?

5

paulm95•29d ago

Shoutout to the guy who told me to buy a $50 brick trowel

I've been using the same cheap $15 trowel from Home Depot for two years. Finally broke down and got a Marshalltown at a supply house near Louisville. First day using it, my wrist didn't ache after 8 hours of laying block on a retaining wall. That little extra balance and spring in the blade made a huge difference. Anyone else notice that paying a bit more for hand tools actually pays off quick?

19

harper_wright•1mo ago

Bought a fancy mortar mixer off Craigslist and it died on day two.

I picked up a used mortar mixer for $350 from a guy in Tacoma who said it ran fine. Second day on a patio job, the motor smoked out and seized up solid. Anybody know a reliable place to get these things fixed without spending twice what I paid?

16

vera_lewis•1mo ago

Old timer in Toledo told me to never wet my bricks before laying them

He swore it weakened the mortar bond, but I did it anyway on a hot July job and those bricks set rock solid... has anyone else heard that advice one way or the other?

14

hernandez.morgan•1mo ago

Hit 50,000 bricks laid yesterday and it hit me weird

I was just finishing up a wall for a new house out in Elmhurst and decided to keep count like I always do. After lunch I looked at my tally and it was right at 50,000 exactly. That number just seemed huge to me, I started doing this trade back in 2011 and never thought I'd hit a number like that. Has anyone else kept track of their totals over the years? What's your best guess for how many bricks you've laid?