c/bricklayers

Mortar mix calculator lied to me, doubled my time on a garden wall

Spent last Tuesday on a 40 foot retaining wall, the app said 12 bags of type S would cover it but I ran out at 30 feet and had to drive 25 minutes back to the yard for 4 more. Ended up taking 9 hours instead of the 5 I planned, has anyone else had trouble trusting those online calculators for tricky corners and returns?

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nelson.wren•1d ago

Old reclaimed brick vs new stuff, 10 years apart on the same wall

Did a repoint job in St. Louis last month on a 1920s facade and the difference between the original brick and some 2015 replacement units is honestly embarrassing. The old ones are dense, tight, barely any chipping after 100 years. The newer ones, all porous and fading, they've already got spalling on the south face. I know costs pushed everyone to cheaper sources, but has anyone else noticed the quality drop on common brick from suppliers like General Shale since around 2013?

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jake_patel•6d ago

Talking with a mason in Omaha made me rethink my mortar mix ratios

Had a long conversation last week with an older mason who swears by adding a bit more lime in cold weather, said it gives you more working time before the frost sets in. I've always just followed the bag instructions, but his logic about the chemistry made sense, so I tried it on a small retaining wall yesterday. Anyone else adjust their mix based on the temperature, or do you keep it standard year round?

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baker.christopher•6d ago

That brick arch in Charleston nearly broke my brain

Last month I was walking around the historic district in Charleston and saw this old brick archway that's been standing since the 1800s. The way the bricks are laid, they're all tapered and cut so precise, no mortar gaps bigger than a dime. I got to wondering how they figured out the angles without laser levels or CAD, just string and a story pole. Has anyone here ever attempted a real radial arch, and what method did you use to lay out the cuts, or do you mostly stick to jack arches?

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harpercampbell•7d ago

Old foreman in Pittsburgh told me to wet my bricks, I called him crazy

Back in 2004 I was fresh on a crew outside Pittsburgh, and the foreman, Ray, kept yelling at me to dunk each brick before laying. I thought he was stuck in the past, you know, wasting time with a hose when the mortar was already wet enough. He said, 'Dry brick sucks the water right out, you'll get weak joints that crumble in ten years.' I ignored him for two weeks until I saw cracks on a wall we just finished. Went back, re-did the section with soaked bricks, and that patch is still solid today while the first batch needed repointing by 2016. Anyone else fight their older crew on this and regret it later?

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zara_sanchez•11d ago

Overheard a GC quote from 2019 that still bugs me about mortar color

I was at a supply yard in Tulsa last Wednesday and heard this GC tell a homeowner that "color doesn't matter once it's up," talking about mortar. That is SO wrong. I did a rehab job in Broken Arrow two summers ago where the homeowner picked a tan mortar, we laid it, and after it dried it looked PINK next to the red brick. We had to grind out every joint and redo it, cost them an extra $1,400. Color absolutely matters, especially with anything not plain red. Has anyone else dealt with a spec that looked fine in the bucket but totally different on the wall? How do you test it before committing?

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fionam11•12d ago

Unpopular opinion: joint rakers are overrated on brick ties

I used to swear by raking every joint to seat the ties, but a job last week in Austin on a 4,000 sq ft wall changed my mind. We set ties directly into full mortar beds for 80% of it, and only raked the corners and jambs. The wall came out flatter and we saved about 6 hours of labor. But my foreman swore the raked joints hold better in high wind, so I'm wondering what's your experience with skipped raking on regular cavity walls? Has anyone had a tie pull loose on a full bed, or is that just old school caution?

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tessa_carr•12d ago

Mortar pump choice nearly cost me a foundation pour this spring

I had to pick between a used mortar pump for $4,200 and renting one for three days at $850 down in Columbus. I went with the used one because it seemed like a steal, but the hoses were worn and it clogged twice on the first wall. Spent a full afternoon breaking down the line and lost half a day of labor. Has anyone else had a similar call on old equipment that bit them on a deadline?

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david_reed22•13d ago

Why does nobody talk about mortar mix ratios shifting with humidity

After 11 years of laying block in Nashville, I finally connected the dots watching my joints crack on a muggy August morning, the same mix I always used was too wet because I never adjusted for the air, and now I'm wondering who else learned that the hard way or am I just late to the party?

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cole_murphy•14d ago

Warning: I set my line pins by eye for 6 years until a laser level caught me

Laid 400 feet of wall in Tulsa using a string line I thought was true, then my new helper asked why the corners leaned in, so has anyone else trusted their gut over a level for that long?

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wilson.olivia•18d ago

I finally stopped butterflying every corner after a 60 year old showed me his way

Been doing winged corners for 20 years cuz that's how my first foreman taught me. Last month an old timer on a job in Scranton just ran his joint straight through the corner and tooled it after, looked way cleaner and took half the time. Anyone else switch methods late in their career and feel dumb about it?

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fiona_carr26•18d ago

Bought a used mixer from a local auction, nearly paid double later

Picked up a 10 cubic foot mortar mixer at a farm auction outside Tulsa for $400. Ran fine for two days then the drum seized up. Rebuilt it myself, new bearings ran me $85. Lesson is inspect the drum fins before you bid, or you'll eat the cost like I did. Anyone else gamble on used equipment and get burned?

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kimw57•19d ago

Saw a crew leveling with a laser on a mall job, ditched my string lines after 12 years

I was walking through the new outlet mall off I-75 last Tuesday checking a friend's storefront slab. That crew was shooting grade with a rotary laser and a cheap receiver, no string lines anywhere. One guy was standing 80 feet back taking readings while another adjusted the screed. I asked how long they'd been at it and he said they did 3,000 square feet before lunch. My way with mason's line and a level takes twice as long and still ends up with me rechecking corners. I bought the same setup that night for 140 bucks. It felt like cheating for the first two days until I realized I wasn't rebuilding anything. Anyone else make the switch and regret not doing it sooner, or is there a catch with laser gear on windy sites?

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alicer53•19d ago

Hit my 2,000th brick laid this week, not the milestone I expected

Been laying for about 8 years now. Tracked every job in a little notebook. This Tuesday I hit 2,000 bricks on a single house foundation near Fort Worth. Felt weird because it's just a number, but then I added up the mortar bags, 47 total. That got me thinking about how much weight we move in a day. Anyone else keep a count or is that just my weird habit?

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carr.abby•20d ago

Checked my mortar mix weights against a scale, turns out I was off by 15%

I've been eyeballing my mix for 12 years, never worried about it. Last weekend I grabbed a cheap bathroom scale and weighed out a standard batch, the sand to cement ratio was way heavy. If I've been doing that on commercial jobs here in Phoenix, how many other guys are leaving weak joints without knowing it?

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young.thomas•20d ago

Cold weather mortar failure on a Friday job site in Denver

I mixed mortar at 28 degrees with accelerant last week, it set too fast and cracked by Monday, so now I tell every apprentice to test a small batch first and has anyone else switched to heated mixing water instead?

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stella_scott96•21d ago

Hit 1,000,000 bricks laid and it got me thinking about quantity vs quality

I hit a million bricks laid last month on a 14 story job in Columbus, Ohio. The crew took me out for drinks and everything, but I keep going back and forth on whether that number means anything real. On one hand, it's a solid milestone that shows I can show up and grind, but on the other, I've seen guys who laid half that amount do way cleaner work on curved walls. My foreman said "a million bricks is just a million chances to mess up" and that stuck with me. So which matters more, hitting big numbers or the finished product looking perfect from 10 feet away? I'm curious if anyone else has tracked their totals or if you just let the job speak for itself.

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the_eric•22d ago

That 2005 Bergerac repoint job finally gave up on me

Finally got a call back from a house in Dover we did back in 05, the lime mortar on the south wall just crumbled out in chunks after all this rain. My old mix ratio of 1:3 with sharp sand was fine then, but I guess the frost cycles up here are way worse now. I told the owner we could patch it with hydraulic lime for around 900 bucks, but honestly I'm leaning towards just redoing that whole elevation. Anyone else seeing older work fail way sooner than it used to, or is it just this weird coastal weather?

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troychen•23d ago

Bought a beat-up old mortar mixer instead of renting for the third time

I used to rent a mixer every weekend and it added up fast, like $85 a pop plus the truck fee. Last month I found a used 1990s model on Craigslist for $400 and it's been a workhorse, even with a few wobbles. Now I just keep it greased and it starts first pull, saves me an hour every Friday night. Anyone else finally buy the equipment they kept renting, or am I just hoarding machines now?

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fiona_hunt71•24d ago

Plumb bob vs laser level, I flipped sides after 12 years on scaffold

I always figured laser levels were for guys who couldn't read a string and weight. Then last spring on a job near Tacoma, we had wind gusts up to 20 mph and the plumb bob was swinging like a pendulum, cost us half a day redoing a corner. A younger guy on the crew pulled out his rotary laser and we checked every corner of that 40 foot wall in about 20 minutes. I still think plumb bobs have their place for small repairs, but now I bring both to every site. Anyone else switched tools after a stubborn job, or am I the last one to give in?

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spencer_gonzalez1•26d ago

The $40 brick hammer I nearly tossed in the dumpster

I grabbed a cheap Estwing knockoff off a pallet at a flea market in Tampa, figured it would last a week at most. Three months into a retaining wall job in Brandon, the head started wobbling on the handle, real dangerous with the kids running around the site. I was about to chunk it, but a buddy at the yard said to soak the handle end in water overnight and tap in a hardwood wedge, cost me maybe $2 at the hardware store. Now it's tighter than my day-one hammer and honestly hits cleaner for splitting bricks. Anyone else ever resurrect a beater tool like that, or do you just bite the bullet and buy new when the head loosens up?

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ryan793•26d ago

The cold joint I thought I fixed came back to bite me

Layed a long garden wall last Tuesday and hit a cold joint where I stopped for lunch. I thought wetting the old brick faces before continuing was enough, but the next day I saw a hairline crack right there. Learned that a proper rake-out and a slurry coat on the existing mortar is the only way to go, even if it adds 20 minutes. Anyone else had a repaired cold joint fail on them, or do you always cut a fresh key?

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brookeellis•28d ago

Watched a crew in Charleston use a herringbone pattern on a retaining wall and it totally changed my mind about them

I always thought herringbone looked too busy for brickwork, but seeing it laid out across a 40-foot wall in that historic district actually made it look clean and intentional. Has anyone else tried it on a non-flat surface and regretted it or was it just me being stubborn about patterns?

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emma_wells83•29d ago

Old school to new school on mortar mixing

Old school to new school on mortar mixing.

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mileslane•1mo ago

I finally switched from lime mortar to Type N after that library job in Portland

I was always a lime mortar purist, figured it was the only way to go for old brick. Then I did a repoint on that 1920s library downtown last month and the lime just kept crumbling in the freeze-thaw. A structural engineer on site told me 'you're fighting 100 years of weather with a prayer' and showed me how Type N would actually breathe better there. Made me rethink my whole approach, especially for exterior work in cold climates. Has anyone else had to change their mortar mix based on a specific building's history?

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