Saw a crew in Charleston butter their head joints with a foam brush and now I'm a believer

Noah Green · 2026-10-16T10:55:04.140012+00:00

I was doing a small repair job on a house in Charleston last week and the crew next door was laying block on a long garden wall. I noticed the guy kept a foam brush in his back pocket and dipped it in a coffee can of water to wet the head joints before he set each block. I always just relied on dunking the block or splashing the joint with my trowel, which is messy and half the time the mortar still sets up too fast in the heat. Been trying the brush thing for 3 days now and my joints are cleaner and I'm not fighting dried mortar on the trowel. Anyone else use a brush for wetting joints or is there a better trick I'm missing?

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Saw a crew in Charleston butter their head joints with a foam brush and now I'm a believer | Bricklayers - Vivisector