c/bricklayers

Overheard a GC say mortar color matters more than mix ratio

At a job in Tacoma last Tuesday, I heard the foreman telling a new guy that nobody checks the slump but everyone notices a ugly mortar joint. He said he spent 10 extra minutes per batch getting the sand blend right and his callbacks dropped to zero in a year. I used to just grab whatever sand was on the pallet, but now I'm matching the sample board before I even start. Anyone else found that color mismatch gets you more complaints than a slightly soft mix?

The $70 wet saw blade I sharpened twice before reading the label

Bought a cheap diamond blade for my wet saw in Columbus last spring. Thought I was saving money by sharpening it with a dressing stone, did that twice over two weekends. Then I noticed the label said it was a single-use blade for soft brick only. I was cutting old hard clay pavers and wore it down in under 12 cuts. The next blade cost $90 but has done 400 cuts with no loss of speed. Anyone else ever burn through a blade that wasn't rated for the material you were cutting?

A homeowner's comment about my joints made me change my trowel size

Last Tuesday a lady in Boise watched me lay a course and said my head joints looked too tight, then pointed to a crack forming on her old patio. I switched from a 1/2 inch trowel to a 5/8 inch for her soft brick and the mortar filled way better with no hollow spots. Has anyone else adjusted trowel size based on the brick's absorption rate, or am I overthinking this?

Finally got the corners clean on my third try this week

After two mornings of fighting the mortar buildup on a patio corner in Austin, switching to a smaller pointing trowel and mixing drier batches just clicked today. Anyone else find that the corner joints take way longer to look right than the flat runs?

Finally got a clean soldier course on my third try

Been working on a brick veneer job over in Lancaster for a house built in the 1920s, and that top row was kicking my tail. Last month I tried leveling it with a line but the old foundation dips threw everything off. This time I snapped a chalk line at the header height and used a laser level on a tripod instead, plus I dry laid the entire course before mortar. Took me about 6 hours longer than I planned but every joint lines up perfect now, no lippage at all. Anyone else struggle with soldier courses on older homes or have a better trick for fixing slight foundation slopes?

Spent $400 on a laser level, still reach for the string line

Bought a rotary laser last spring for a big retaining wall job, thought it would cut my layout time in half. Instead it sat in the truck while I used the old mason's string and line level because that's what I trust on uneven ground. Anyone else drop real cash on tech and end up sticking with the basic tools?

Hit 10,000 bricks laid on my current wall, wasn't even counting

I looked back at my ledger for the retaining wall job in Spokane and realized I've set 10,000 units, mostly 8x8x16 block, since March. It surprised me because I never keep score, but the number makes me feel like all those early mornings mixing mud were worth it. Anyone else track their total brick count on a big project, or is that just me?

Master mason told me my joints were too perfect, took me a month to get it

He said if I kept laying like that, the wall would crack by spring because the mortar can't breathe. I had to redo a 40 foot section in Dayton and now I leave a tiny variation in every joint, what do you guys do to keep it from looking machine made?

Wet mortar on a windy day in Tulsa cost me 4 hours I didn't budget for

I mean, everyone talks about frost and rain, but nobody warns you that 25 mph gusts will dry your mud mid-strike, so maybe it's just me but does anyone run a tarp windbreak or just eat the overtime like I did last Tuesday?

The 1930s brick formula I found in an old job file

Been repointing a house from 1931 and the original spec called for lime putty aged 6 months before use, which I'd never seen written down before, so has anyone else ran into old mortar recipes that just don't make sense today?

The 2x4 that kept bouncing back on my mortar mix

So I'm mixing a batch on site in Austin last Tuesday, and this warped 2x4 I was using to scrape the mixer edge kept popping out of my hand, like it had a mind of its own. Third time it smacked the side of the wheelbarrow, I just grabbed a shorter cutoff, taped a rag around the end, and used it like a paddle. Worked way better, zero bounce, and I finished the mix in half the time. Anyone else got a random tool substitute that beat the real thing?

Shoutout to the old timer who showed me the string line trick on 5th Street

I was laying a garden wall in Portland last spring, and this retired mason walked by and stopped to watch. He pointed at my line and said "you're chasing your own sag, son" and showed me to pull it extra tight off the corner block. It took 3 tries to get the hang of it, but my courses came out dead straight after that. Has anyone else had a stranger on the sidewalk give them advice that actually worked out?

Overheard a foreman say half a brick is a full day's problem

Was grabbing coffee near a job site downtown and this old foreman tells a young guy, "if you drop a brick, that's 30 seconds lost. If you drop your level, that's half a day." Stuck with me because I've definitely been the guy who chipped a corner and tried to hide it in the wall face, and it always bites you at the end when the line's off. Now I double check my level's strap before I climb the scaffold, and I've saved myself at least two re-do's this month alone. Anyone else got a dumb habit they finally kicked after hearing some old timer put it that way?

Mortar mix faceoff: bagged blend vs my old eyeball method

Been laying block for 12 years and always mixed by feel, just adding water and sand until it looked right. Last Tuesday on a garage foundation in Knoxville I grabbed a bag of preblended Type S on a whim and figured why not. The stuff held its shape way better on the trowel and my joints came out cleaner with zero guesswork. I burned through a pallet of block about 2 hours faster than my usual pace. Only downside was the cost, roughly $9 more per pallet of block compared to raw materials. Has anyone else switched from scratch mixing to the bagged stuff and noticed a big jump in speed?

The pointing job in Charleston that made me rethink my mortar mix

I was down in Charleston last month doing some repointing on a row of 1840s townhouses. The joints were crumbling but not from age, the homeowner had someone redo them 10 years ago with a modern mix that was way too hard. It trapped moisture and blew out the brick edges. I mean, I've been doing this for 15 years and I've always just used the same bagged mix for everything. But watching that damage up close, I think we all need to stop being lazy about matching the old lime-based stuff. Has anyone else had to fix work that was too strong for the brick, or am I the only one running into this?

That Monday in 2019 with the frozen mortar tub

Cold morning up in Burlington, wind off the lake was brutal. We had 3000 brick to lay on a retaining wall and the mortar kept skinning over before we could butter a joint. By noon we'd only set maybe 14 courses, felt like we were going backwards. The boss finally said 'heat the water, not the mix,' and a $40 tank heater turned it all around by 2pm. Anyone else fight winter mortar or do you just mix smaller batches?

Overheard a homeowner call mortar 'brick glue' at the supply yard

Guy in front of me at the counter in Columbus asked for two bags of 'the strong glue that holds bricks together.' Clerk just handed him Type S without blinking. I bit my tongue, but it got me thinking how many folks have no clue what we actually do. Anyone else ever let a customer keep calling it that just to avoid a 20 minute explanation?

50,000 bricks in one season, never noticed until the count

I keep a tally of every brick I lay for my own records. Last Friday I added up the numbers from March through October and hit 50,280 exactly. That number shocked me because 5 years ago I was doing maybe 15,000 a year on small residential jobs. This season I worked on a big retail center outside Columbus and a church addition, so the volume just climbed. It made me realize my back and hands have been holding up way better than I expected at 44. Has anyone else ever tracked their yearly brick count and been surprised by the total? How do you pace yourself on those monster commercial runs?

That job in Savannah made me give up my old mortar mix for good

I was on a repair job down near Forsyth Park last March, patching a retaining wall that kept cracking. The homeowner's dad was a mason back in the 60s and he told me to stop using the pre-mixed stuff and just do a 3:1 with lime. I thought he was old school for the sake of it, but he showed me how the original mortar was soft and let the bricks breathe. I re-did a small section his way and the difference in how it grabs and flexes was wild. Has anyone else switched to a lime mix after fighting hairline cracks for years?

Chose lime mortar over Portland on a 1910 re-point, no regrets so far

I had to re-point a brick cellar wall in Cincinnati this month and had to pick between modern Portland cement or traditional lime. I went with the lime mix because the old soft bricks need to breathe, cost about $80 more but it feels right. Did 6 test panels in the back corner first to see how it cured, and the color blends way better than the grey stuff. Anyone here stick with lime for older homes even when it takes longer to set?

My uncle swore by using old bed sheets for mortar mixing

He said it catches all the dust and you just toss it when done. Tried it last month on a small patio job in Dallas and yeah, way less cleanup than tarps. Anyone else use weird stuff for mixing?

Snapped a cheap trowel after 2 weeks and finally saw why the pricey ones matter

Bought a budget trowel at the hardware store in Austin last month figuring a trowel's a trowel. After laying maybe 600 bricks the handle cracked and the blade warped, which messed up my line work for a whole afternoon. Has anyone else found that mid-range trowels hit the sweet spot or am I just unlucky?

Was team convinced quick-setting mortar was a gimmick, now I swear by it after a retaining wall job in Austin last June

Tried that lime mortar mix on a 1920s repoint last week and the stuff wouldn't set right for three days

Had to keep the tarps up through a rainstorm and learned that old bricks need way more babysitting than new ones, has anyone else had curing issues with heritage lime?

Heard a guy at the supply yard say metric brick is a gimmick

I was picking up mortar at Builders Mart on Tuesday and overheard this older bricklayer tell a new guy that metric sized bricks are just a fad and don't lay right. I've been using metric modular bricks on the last three jobs in Raleigh and my courses come out way more consistent with less waste. I get that people get set in their ways, but have you guys actually tried them on a big wall?