That old mason in Pittsburgh told me I was brushing too hard

I was on a job in Pittsburgh last month, cleaning a big old fireplace. The customer's dad was a retired mason who hung around watching. He pointed out I was scrubbing the firebrick way too hard with my wire brush, said I was just grinding away the glaze and making it rougher for next time. Now I go way lighter on the bricks and focus more on the flue, and the finish looks way better. Anyone else get called out by a customer or their family?

3 comments

3 Comments

logan_young291mo ago

Old man masons are a DIFFERENT breed man, they've been doing it since before half this industry even existed. I read a forum post once from a guy who had a customer's grandpa who was a retired stoneworker, and he basically told the kid he was gonna wear out the mortar joints in ten years if he kept scrubbing that hard. It must be a universal thing with them, they LOVE to point out the small stuff that nobody else notices. Gotta respect that kind of wisdom though, it saves a lot of headaches down the road.

the_xena1mo ago

@logan_young29 nailed it. Those old guys see things we don't even know exist yet. Had a retired mason once tell me my pointing trowel was "too shiny" and I'd regret it later. Turns out he was right, I was spending more time cleaning it than working. They just know.

jake9861mo ago

And the thing about the "too shiny" trowel is real too, I had a guy tell me my hammer handle was too clean once and I laughed it off. But then I realized I was wiping it down every five minutes instead of just letting it get a natural patina like his old one had. Those old masonry guys have this thing about tools looking "worked in" because that means you're actually using them instead of babying them or abusing them. It's funny how they can spot that from across the room, like they've got some kind of radar for rookie habits.