c/bricklayers

Leveling mortar with a chalk line finally clicked for me

Been laying block on a 40 foot foundation in Cleveland and kept getting low spots that took forever to fix. I tried snapping a chalk line across the top course and pulling the mud to that mark instead of eyeballing it. Cut my leveling time down to about 20 minutes per row. Anyone else use a string line for top course work, or is that just me being lazy?

Mortar mix changed after a job in Phoenix, now I second guess every batch

Last summer I was on a retaining wall job in Phoenix and the heat was brutal, 110 degrees by noon. I used my usual 3:1 sand to cement mix and the mortar dried way too fast, I had to bust out a whole course of block the next morning. Now I'm mixing in lime and wetting the sand ahead of time, but I wonder if that's overkill for smaller jobs in cooler weather. Does anyone else adjust their mix based on the region or do you stick with one recipe and just work faster? I'm torn between consistency and adapting to conditions, what's your call?

A quick word from a site super saved my mortar mix

I used to mix my mortar a bit on the stiff side, thinking it held the brick better. Last month, an inspector doing a walkthrough on a garage addition told me my joints would likely shrink-crack by spring. He showed me his thumb test, where the mortar should just barely stick to your glove. I switched to a wetter mix that same afternoon, and the brick laid smoother and leveled faster. Has anyone else gotten a similar tip that made you question everything you learned from your old foreman?

Bought 200 bricks from an online pallet deal, 40 were chipped on arrival

Paid $430 for a pallet of 'seconds quality' reds from a website, but almost a quarter showed up cracked or chipped and the freight guy just shrugged. Anyone else have luck disputing brick deliveries or am I stuck using them for rubble fill?

That 'quick' repoint job on a 120 year old wall in St. Louis bit me hard

Tried using a hard Portland mix to match the old soft lime mortar, figured it would hold up better, and now I've got cracks running through 14 bricks from expansion stress. Has anyone else dealt with mismatch damage after the fact, or do I need to tear out and redo the whole section?

Appreciation post: the old Italian trowel that finally made sense to me

I inherited a beat-up Marshalltown trowel from my uncle about 8 years ago and never used it because the handle felt weird. Last month I watched a YouTube video from a restorer in Philadelphia who explained how the offset handle reduces wrist strain on long runs. I tried it on a fireplace job with 2,000 bricks and my hand felt way better by the end of the day. Now I'm wondering if the new ergonomic handles are worth the extra $30, or if the old geometry is just as good. Has anyone else switched back to older tools after years of using new ones?

Hit 500 brick ties inspected in one shift, now I trust my crew more

I used to double-check every tie on my own after a bad freeze in Denver, but when I counted 500 on one assisted build last Tuesday and found zero bent ones, I finally handed that job over to my two apprentices for good, has anyone else hit a number that made them relax their QC?

The foreman who made me redo a corner three times for no reason

Back in March on a job in Portland, this older foreman watched me lay a corner and then said it was 'off plumb by a hair' when my level showed it dead on. He made me tear it down and rebuild it twice more, each time the same result, and then he just shrugged and said 'good enough' and walked off. I was 6 months into the trade then, so I kept my mouth shut, but it stuck with me how he never once put his own level on it. I've seen that kind of thing since, older guys flexing on newer guys just to feel important, and it burns me up. We're all trying to make a straight wall, not play mind games. Has anyone else had a foreman or lead do something like that just to mess with you, and how did you handle it without losing the job?

Vent: That moment my brick arch settled wrong - still kicking myself

I was building a brick arch over a new garage door in a house near Austin last month, and right after I pulled the centering frame, the whole thing dropped about a quarter inch on the left side. Turns out I didn't let the mortar cure long enough in the humid morning air before taking the support out. Has anyone else had an arch go sideways like that and had to shim it back into place without the customer noticing?

Thought I'd save time by buttering all my bricks at once on a board. Ended up with a modern art installation that fell apart.

Last tuesday I got cocky on a garden wall job in Austin. Laid out like 15 bricks on a plywood sheet, slathered mortar on all of them, then tried to slide each one into place. First three were fine. Then the whole board tipped and I had a pile of mortar-caked bricks that looked like a failed pottery class. Took me an extra hour to chip them clean. Lesson learned: stick to buttering one at a time. Anyone else tried some shortcut that backfired badly?

Just found out my local brick supplier has been saving me money without me asking

I was picking up some extra red commons for a small patio job in Danville last Tuesday and the yard manager mentioned they've been giving me a 5% bulk discount for the last 3 years. I never even asked for it, they just applied it to my account after my first big order of 800 bricks. Has anyone else had a supplier quietly cut you a break like that?

Old timer told me to soak my bricks before laying them

Back in 2012 I was working a job in Portland with this guy named Frank. He was maybe 65, been laying brick since the 70s. He swore up and down you gotta soak every brick in water before you lay it. Said dry bricks suck the moisture out of the mortar too fast. I followed his advice for like two years. Then I did a job with a younger crew who laughed at me. They said modern mortar has additives for that. I tested it on my next project. Soaked half the bricks, left half dry. You know what? Frank was right. The soaked side had way less cracking after the first freeze. Still do it to this day. Has anyone else run into old school methods that actually worked better?

Ran across a stat that 70% of brick walls fail at the mortar joint first

I was reading through some masonry engineering stuff last night, not really looking for anything specific, and stumbled on this old study. It said most brick wall failures happen right where the mortar meets the brick, not through the brick itself. That kind of blew my mind because I always figured a crack through the brick was the bigger worry. Has anyone else seen that hold true on their jobs?

That customer who asked me to fix a brick wall that was 20 years old

A guy came into my shop last month with a photo of a retaining wall his dad built back in 2003 that was starting to bulge out. He wanted me to just patch it up instead of tearing it down and starting over. Has anyone else had to explain to a customer that old brickwork sometimes needs a full rebuild to be safe?

Vent: That fast-setting mortar I doubted turned out to be a lifesaver on a cold day

I was dead set against using that rapid-set stuff for years, figured it was too expensive and finicky. Last week on a job in Buffalo when the temp dropped to 38 degrees, it set up solid in under an hour while my regular mix was still soup. Anyone else had a product they were sure was gimmicky but ended up saving them?

Appreciation post: That red brick from the 1940s is way softer than you think

I was working on a repointing job last month on an old house built in 1948. The owner wanted me to match the original mortar, so I started doing some research. I found out that bricks made before the 1950s are often fired at lower temperatures and have a higher absorption rate. One source I found from the National Brick Research Center said old red bricks can absorb up to 20% of their weight in water. That blew my mind because modern bricks are usually under 10%. I had to switch to a lime-based mortar so the brick wouldn't crack under pressure. Has anyone else run into this problem with older homes? What mortar mix did you end up using?

Blew out my trowel arm on a brick archway at Miller's Job Site

I was on a crew laying a big curved arch for a new bank lobby downtown last Tuesday and my left forearm just gave out halfway through the third course. My lead guy pulled me aside and showed me how to switch to a smaller pointing trowel for the tight curves and it saved my whole afternoon. Has anyone else had to change their tool size mid-job just to keep the joints clean?

Am I the only one who changed their mind on using a jointer for brickwork

I always thought jointers were just for looks and not worth the extra time, but after I tried one on a retaining wall last month the difference was night and day... the lines came out so clean and even compared to my old thumb jointing method. What made you switch up your process on something you thought you had figured out?

Hot take: I learned more from one old mason in 10 minutes than 2 years on my own

Honestly, I was working a residential job in Omaha last spring and this guy maybe 70 years old walks over from the next lot. He watched me lay a course for maybe 30 seconds then said 'you're buttering too thick on the head joint, son.' He showed me how to cut the excess off with a quick trowel flick and it saved me like an hour of cleanup per wall. Ngl, I still think about that advice every time I set a brick. Anyone else have a random pro drop some simple tip that stuck with you?

Just counted 11,000 bricks on a single job. That number hit me harder than i expected.

Showerthought: Saw a brick wall in a mall that was totally fake

Was at the Galleria mall in Houston last weekend with my wife and stopped to stare at this brick wall... turns out it's just painted foam. Someone went through all that trouble to make it look real but didn't even match the mortar lines right. I stood there for like 5 minutes pointing out the flaws to my wife, she was not impressed. Has anyone else spotted fake brickwork that just makes you cringe?

Found a way to keep mortar from drying out too fast on hot days

Been working on a retaining wall out in the sun here in Austin and the mortar was setting up way too quick. I tried wetting the bricks down with a spray bottle but that just made things messy. Then an old timer told me to mix in a little bit of hydrated lime with my cement and sand. Did that last week on a 95 degree day and I had way more working time. Has anyone else tried this trick or do you just throw a tarp over everything and call it a day?

Old timer at the jobsite changed how I see brick cleaning

I was on a row home renovation in Philly last March and this mason with 40 years in the trade watched me scrubbing new brick with muriatic acid. He pulled me aside and said 'you're gonna ruin that brick in 5 years, use a mild soap and a soft brush instead.' I laughed it off at first but he showed me a wall he did in 1992 that still looked fresh. Now I'm starting to think the aggressive chemical approach is a shortcut that costs clients down the road. Any of you guys had luck with gentler cleaning methods on older brick?

The old way of buttering a brick still works better for me

I learned bricklaying from my uncle back in 2003 outside of Charlotte, and he always had me butter each brick by hand with a trowel. These days most guys on my crew just lay a fat string of mortar and push the bricks into it, but I still catch myself picking up each one and doing it the old way. That habit saved me on a job last month where the mortar got a bit stiff from the heat and the new method left gaps. Anyone else stick with the hand buttering or am I just stubborn?

Finally figured out a better way to butter joint my brick arches

Used to just butter the head joints by eye and hope they lined up. After a helper messed up a garage archway last fall I started marking every brick with a chalk line and dry laying first. Has anyone else switched to dry laying arches and seen fewer gaps?