Bricklayers and Stonemasons
Lay, cut and shape bricks and other blocks and masonry slabs to construct and repair walls and other structures.
A long wall and a short morning
You are a bricklayer on a crew building a long garden wall beside a new house, with a stonemason joining you for a feature section at the entry. It is 6:30am and already warm. You have a morning to lay as much as you can before the sun makes the mortar set too fast. The builder arrives with news about the plans.
Choose what you would do. Then see what happens. There are often good reasons for each choice.
I have just heard from the owner. She wants the wall two courses higher than the plan. I know you have laid the first sixty bricks, but can you just carry on up? The extra height will not matter. It will look better.
Carry on up as the builder suggests, since he has spoken to the owner
The wall goes up as asked. But a taller wall may need a different footing or approval, and nobody has checked. The extra courses are only fine if someone confirms they are.
Stop the wall completely until the owner confirms in writing, and send the crew home
You are careful, but the crew loses the cool morning. The owner turns up at noon surprised to find nothing happening, and the mortar you mixed has gone to waste.
Check what the change affects before you add a single brick
Hollis finds that the footing needs checking. By ten you have a quick answer, the owner has approved a small change and you are laying again within the hour.
I think the wall is leaning a bit at this end. It looked straight a minute ago. If we keep going, the mortar will set, and then it will be harder to change. Should I tap the bricks into line?
Tap them into line as quickly as you can, since the mortar is still soft
Tapping a wall that has already set a little can crack the joints. The wall looks straight today but has weak points that open up later, and nobody sees them under the mortar.
Finish the course first, then check the whole wall properly at the end of the day
By the afternoon the lean has been built into three more courses. Fixing it means taking some of them apart, and the day Brodie wanted to learn from becomes a day of rework.
Check it with the level, then correct only what is out
It is only slightly out, and you correct it in a few minutes while the mortar is still workable. Brodie learns to check often, so small errors never become large ones.
The stone slab for the entry has a hairline crack I did not see when it was delivered. The owner is paying a lot for it. Do I use it anyway and hope it holds, or should I report it before I cut?
Report it before cutting, with a photo, and ask the supplier what they suggest
The supplier agrees it was cracked in transit and sends a replacement. Maris saves a slab and a reputation. Cutting into a flawed stone just makes the flaw yours.
Cut around the crack to hide it, since the stone is expensive
The cut is clever and the crack mostly disappears, but the slab is now smaller than the owner ordered. A few months later the hidden crack works its way across the stone.
Use it as it is and hope the crack stays small
The slab is fixed in place. The crack opens in the first cold snap, and the owner wants to know why it was installed at all.
How it went
By midday the wall is two courses higher, straight along its length, and the entry has a clean replacement slab on order. Masonry is slow, heavy and exact, and a mistake is built into the wall. Would you like leaving something behind that could outlast you?
This is a simplified, fictional situation to help you explore. It is not professional instruction or a test of your ability.
Case study: The old wall and the new bricks
A fictional case set in a masonry crew building brick walls on new homes and repairing old stone and brick on heritage buildings.
The situation
Petra's masonry crew was asked to repair a section of an old brick garden wall at a small heritage cottage. Part of the wall had fallen after a tree root pushed against it. The owner, Mr Gallagher, wanted it rebuilt in new bricks from the hardware yard so it was done quickly and cheaply. The bricks in the old wall were soft, handmade, and a deep orange that no new brick matched.
What they did
Petra explained to Mr Gallagher that new hard bricks next to old soft ones could crack the old ones over time. She helped him find old bricks from a demolition yard that matched in colour and softness. She cleaned and kept the fallen bricks so they could be reused in the most visible part, and matched the mortar by testing small samples. It took longer and cost more, but she showed him the difference side by side.
How it turned out
The wall was finished in two weeks, and it looks like it has always been there. Mr Gallagher was surprised at how much he cared by the end. A neighbour with a similar wall asked for Petra's number.
What would you do?
- Why might a new material hurt an old one even if it looks the same?
- How would you explain extra cost to someone who wants the cheap option?
- What do you think it feels like to repair something that is older than you?