Pro tip: I was laying a herringbone pattern walkway in Denver and my lines kept drifting until I realized I was starting each row from the same side instead of alternating.

A guy on the crew pointed out my mistake after we had to pull up about 20 square feet of brick, and now I always begin the pattern from the center point of the wall or walkway to keep it symmetrical... anyone have a different method for keeping complex patterns on track?

3 comments

3 Comments

robert_ross9525d ago

Hold up, you had to pull up 20 square feet? That's brutal, man. I can't even imagine the back pain from that. That's like a whole day's work just gone, plus all that mortar or sand wasted. I'd be seeing herringbone in my sleep after a screw-up that big.

jenny_lee25d ago

Wait you had to pull up 20 square feet of brick? That sounds like a nightmare.

felixm2925d ago

Starting from the center is the only way to go for any pattern like that... I tried snapping chalk lines for a border once and still messed it up because the ground wasn't perfectly level. The bricks just followed the slope and threw the whole angle off. Now I use a laser level to set a center guide line on every single row, no matter what. It adds maybe ten minutes to the setup but saves hours of pulling up work.