Old school vs. new school on buttering bricks

I got taught by an old timer back in 2011 who swore by slapping the mud on with a flick of the wrist and never using the twist method. Used to take me forever to get the joints even, and I'd end up with gaps every third brick. Lately I switched to buttering with a V-notch trowel and a little twist at the end, and my joints are way tighter. Saves me maybe 20 minutes per 100 bricks on a wall. Which way do you guys lean, the old flick or the new twist?

2 comments

2 Comments

joel_hall1714d ago

Old timers got their methods and that's fine, but the twist changed my whole game too. I switched about three years back after watching a younger crew run rings around me on a big retaining wall. Joints are cleaner and I'm not fighting the mud as much on the last few bricks of a course. Saving 20 minutes per hundred sounds about right, maybe a bit more if the weather is dry and the mortar starts stiffening up. That flick method always left me with way too much cleanup anyway.

susan64914d agoMost Upvoted

My uncle still does that flick method and he spends more time scraping dried mortar off bricks than actually laying them. 20 minutes a hundred sounds generous honestly, I'd bet he loses closer to 30 or 40 with all the scrubbing he has to do at the end of the day. The twist just makes sense when you think about it why would you want to throw mud everywhere on purpose? I switched about two years ago and my back thanks me every single time I finish a course without having to lean over and clean up a mess. Guess old habits just die hard even when they're terrible habits.