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Am I the only one who got stuck for hours on a simple-looking brick soldier course?
Had a 20-foot run that should've taken maybe 90 minutes, but the old brick was so inconsistent in size it took me almost 4 hours to get it straight and level. Do you guys just cut to fit or try to sort through the pile for better matches first?
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masongonzalez2d ago
My grandpa was a bricklayer and he taught me to check the brick with a story pole before I even start. Mark your course height on a long, straight board and lay the bricks next to it. You'll see the size differences right away and can sort them into piles for each part of the run. It adds maybe 20 minutes at the start but saves a ton of fiddling later. That old hand trick turned my last repair from a fight into just a long afternoon.
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Feel your pain, that's the real test of a brick project. I usually end up doing a mix of sorting and then cutting the worst offenders. It never goes as fast as you think it will.
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hannah_perry2d ago
Remember helping my uncle repoint his chimney. Spent half a day just trying to get the first row of old bricks to sit right, they were all over the place. Makes you respect the guys who do it for a living.
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