c/bricklayers

Bought a cheap mortar mixer off a guy in Toledo for $200, it broke after two weeks and cost me a whole day's work.

My apprentice in Phoenix said we should always use a 3/8 inch joint for residential brick, no matter what.

He argued it's stronger and looks better than the 1/2 inch I've used for twenty years. I tried it on a garage job yesterday and honestly, the wall felt more solid. Do you guys stick to a specific joint size or change it up?

Serious question, has anyone else seen the brickwork on that new bank building downtown and thought it looked rushed?

I was walking by the new First National on 5th Street yesterday and the soldier course above the main entrance is visibly uneven, with some joints a full quarter inch thicker than others, which makes me think they were pushing for speed over a clean line.

Just realized a lot of new guys don't know how to properly stack brick on a scaffold.

I saw a crew in my city last week with the brick stacked way too high and off the edge of the boards. It's a simple thing, but it matters for safety and keeping your material from falling. How do you all set up your work area to keep things moving fast but safe?

That week we laid 12,000 bricks for a church wall in the rain

It was about five years back, a job for a small church in Springfield. The forecast said sun all week, but it rained for three days straight. We had to tarp everything each night and work soaked through. What made it good was the crew, all old school guys who just kept going, joking about the mud. We still hit our target by Friday, and seeing that clean line of brick against the gray sky felt solid. Ever have a job where the weather fought you the whole time but you still got it done right?

Showerthought: my brick saw blade was binding because of a tiny thing I never checked

I was cutting a bunch of pavers for a patio in Austin last month, and the saw kept bogging down halfway through. I thought the motor was going, but then I noticed the water feed line had a slight kink in it (like, a two-inch bend near the pump). Straightened that out, and the blade cut smooth as butter again. It wasn't getting enough coolant, so the aggregate was basically glazing over and grabbing the blade. I felt pretty dumb for not spotting it sooner. Anyone else ever have a simple fix like that for a saw acting up?

Warning: an old timer in Philly told me my mortar was too wet for the cold

He said 'you're making slush, not mortar' when I was working a job last December. I started mixing a bit drier and the bricks stopped sliding, plus the joints set up way better. Anyone else have a tip that saved your butt in winter work?

A retired mason in Boise told me his secret for a perfect mortar mix is a specific number of shovels of sand, not a bucket.

He said, 'Three shovels of sand to one of cement, mix it dry first, then add water slow until it holds a trowel's edge,' and I've never had a batch fail since.

Had to decide on a mortar mix for a chimney rebuild in a coastal town

The homeowner wanted it done fast and cheap with a pre-mix, but I insisted on a custom lime-rich mix for the salt air. It added a day to the job and cost him an extra $300, but that chimney isn't going to spall in five years. Anyone else had to push back on a client's shortcut that would've bit them later?

I was walking through the new town square development in Springfield and noticed they're using a lot of that thin brick veneer on the storefronts.

A homeowner in St. Paul asked me why I was so particular about my mortar joints.

I explained it was about water and time, and he said, 'So you're building a wall for my grandkids.' Anyone else had a moment like that make the whole day better?

Can we talk about hitting 10,000 bricks laid in a single project?

I just finished the count on this big retaining wall in Dayton, and the number kind of blew my mind. Anyone else get surprised by a total like that?

Serious question, has anyone tried using a chalk line on a curved wall?

I had to lay a serpentine garden wall last week and my old straight line trick was useless. I ended up using a piece of flexible plastic conduit as a guide, marking the curve with a pencil before setting the first course. What do you guys use for a clean curve?

Had to get creative with a chimney stack in a tight alley in Cincinnati

We were rebuilding a chimney and the alley was so narrow the forklift couldn't get the pallet of bricks close enough. My buddy joked we should use a skateboard, so we actually did. We put about 20 bricks at a time on a cheap board and rolled them right up to the scaffold. It looked silly but saved us an hour of hand-bombing. Anyone ever used something weird like that to move material on a tight site?

Pro tip: I mixed a batch of mortar with rainwater on a job in Portland last fall.

The brickwork set way too fast and the color was off. Turns out the pH was all wrong. Anyone else run into weird water issues?

Update: I just laid my 10,000th brick on a garden wall in Eugene

I was building a serpentine wall for a client and kept count out of habit. When I set that last brick, the number hit me. It's not about the count itself, but the fact I can now spot a bad batch of bricks just by the sound of the trowel hitting them. That kind of feel only comes from putting in the reps. Anyone else have a number that made them realize how much they've learned without even trying?

Shoutout to the guy who helped me when my mortar mix went soupy on a chimney repair in Spokane last fall. What's your go-to fix for a bad batch?

Spent $85 on a new pointing trowel and it's a total game changer

I was using this old, beat up trowel for years, the kind you get in a cheap starter kit. Finally bit the bullet and got a nice Marshalltown pointing trowel for about 85 bucks. The difference is night and day. The steel is way more flexible, so it just glides into the joints without digging in or scraping. I can point a whole wall now without my wrist feeling like it's going to fall off. Has anyone else found a specific tool that just made a part of the job way easier?

I finally figured out why my brick lines were always off by a quarter inch

I was laying a soldier course for a garden wall last month in Cedar Rapids, and my apprentice, Jake, asked why I kept tapping the brick after I set it. I told him it was to seat it, but he pointed out I was actually pushing it out of line. I watched my hands and realized I was hitting the brick with the trowel handle on the side, not straight down. After three tries, I switched to a light tap from above and the line stayed perfect. Has anyone else had a simple habit that was messing up their work?

Just read that some Roman brickwork is still standing because they used volcanic ash in the mortar, which is wild to think about.

Found that in a history article online, and it makes me wonder if we're over-relying on modern Portland cement for everything when some ancient mixes might have better longevity for certain jobs.

Looking back at mixing mortar by hand versus the first mixer I used on a job in Denver

We did a whole church wall repair back in '98, and the foreman brought in a Belle Minimix 150. I was sure it would be a pain to clean and slow us down. But after two days of mixing by hand for the foundation, that little machine saved our backs and got the mix way more even every single time. Who else remembers switching over and never wanting to go back?

I built two chimneys last month, one with a standard trowel and one with a brick trowel. The difference was huge.

Just realized using a 9-inch level for a 4-foot garden wall was way slower than grabbing the 4-footer from the truck.

I was laying the capstones on a client's project in Bellingham and the smaller level meant constantly checking and rechecking each stone, which added almost an hour compared to when I finally switched tools and could just lay the long edge across the whole run at once.

TIL that a standard brick weighs about 4.5 pounds, not 5.

I was reading an old building code manual from the 70s at the library and it listed the average weight. I've been overestimating my material loads for years. Has anyone else run into outdated specs that changed how you work?

Always thought a 3/8 inch joint was fine for a garden wall, but my neighbor's fence proved me wrong.

I built a short retaining wall for my own yard last spring, using a standard 3/8 inch mortar joint. It looked fine, but after a rough winter, a few bricks had shifted. Then I saw my neighbor's similar wall, built with a 1/2 inch joint, and his was totally solid. He said the extra mortar gives it more grip, especially with the freeze-thaw cycles we get here in Ohio. Anyone else notice a big difference with slightly thicker joints on smaller outdoor jobs?