Been doing mostly repointing and small walls for 8 years, so I finally rented a wet saw to cut pavers for a 400 sq ft patio outside Columbus. The blade kept grabbing and kicking the paver back at me, thought I got a bad saw or the diamond blade was junk. Turns out I was pushing too fast and not letting the blade do the work, slowed way down and it cut smooth as butter. Anyone else have a rough first wet saw experience or did I just skip a basic skill everyone else learned in trade school?
I bought one of those rotary laser levels for a big retaining wall job last month. Figured it would pay for itself in a day. Turns out the batteries died every two hours and the receiver kept beeping false positives in the sun. I went back to my old string line and level by the second course. Has anyone else dropped serious cash on a tool that just sits in the truck now? What did you switch back to?
Used to swear by the pump mortar gun on big retaining walls, but every cleanup took an hour and I was constantly unclogging the hose. Last month on a 40-foot wall in Cincinnati, I ditched it mid-job after the third jam and just mixed smaller batches by hand. Turns out my pace barely slowed down, but the joints came out way cleaner and my shoulder didn't scream by day two. Now I only break out the gun for long straight runs over 20 feet, everything else is back to the old way. Anyone else gone backwards on tools and found it was actually better?
Back when I started, I'd just eyeball everything and hope it looked straight. That worked fine on small jobs like garden walls, but last year on a 3-story townhouse in Portland the foreman made me redo a whole section because it was 1/4 inch off across 20 feet. Now I use a line level on every run, even for short stretches. Has anyone else had a foreman tear apart their method?
He walked over, pulled a joint out with his trowel tip and said 'you're fighting the sun, kid, leave an extra 2mm for expansion' - has anyone else had to unlearn a bad habit from early on in their career?
I was driving through the suburbs last Tuesday and this new development had a front wall where the brick suddenly went from a running bond to a stack bond for like 6 rows then back again. It looked like someone hit the wrong button on the brick saw and just kept going. The mortar joints were all over the place too, some were fat some were skinny. Anyone else ever see a brick job that just makes you stop and stare?
Overheard a foreman on a site in Omaha say 'if it ain't holding its shape on the trowel, it's gonna sag on the wall' and now I'm kicking myself for every crooked course I've laid since 2019, anyone else have that 'ah man' moment with a basic technique?
I was at a supply house in Cleveland last Tuesday picking up lime for a repointing job, and I got chatting with the old timer behind the counter. He asked what I was working on and I mentioned a 1920s warehouse wall that had some crumbling joints. That's when he dropped a fact I'd never heard before. He said those brown mortar joints from the 1920s and 30s were often made with slag cement which has almost no bonding strength compared to modern stuff. He showed me a binder from 1927 that had test results and apparently those joints start losing integrity after about 8 years of freeze thaw cycles. I've been laying brick for 12 years and nobody ever taught me that in any training. Has anyone else run into old slag mortar and had to deal with it differently?
He said they needed to be at least 3/8 inch for the brick type I was using, and now after fixing it the wall actually looks solid instead of like I was rushing through it - anyone else had to learn joint size the hard way?
I saw this ad in a mailer for a laser level that claimed it could project lines across a whole room with zero drift. Sounded perfect for keeping my brick courses straight on a big retaining wall I was doing in Tulsa. Paid $200 for it and the thing was off by a quarter inch over just 10 feet. Tried recalibrating it like the manual said but it just kept giving me crooked lines. Ended up tossing it in the trash after two hours of frustration. Went back to my old string line and bubble level, which cost me like $30 combined. Has anyone else fallen for one of those fancy tool catalog deals that looked way better than it actually worked?
I was building a retaining wall out near Bristol and the mortar kept drying way too fast. The temp was around 95 and I didnt think to shade my mix before I started. By noon I had to redo a whole 8 foot section because the bond was weak. Has anyone else had a day where everything just fought back like that?
I was working on a garden wall last month and kept messing up the corner where two walls meet. Thought I had it measured right but the bond kept looking off by a quarter inch. Spent nearly 2 hours tearing out and relaying bricks before I realized my string line was sagging in the middle. Has anyone else had a simple tool setup waste their whole morning?
For like 8 months I kept having hairline cracks show up in the corners of every wall I laid. I thought it was the mortar mix or maybe the foundation settling. Then my buddy Mike who's been laying brick for 30 years watched me work for 5 minutes and goes 'you're not staggering your perp joints close enough to the corners.' He showed me I needed to start with a 2 inch bat instead of a full brick. Now I cut every corner starter to 2 inches max and I haven't had a single crack since. Has anyone else had a stupid simple fix like that change their whole game?
I was using a string line for years like my old man taught me on a job in Springfield. Finally caved and bought a green beam self-leveling laser from the supply house. Spent about $275 and it paid for itself inside of two weeks with how fast I could set up and check my work. No more squinting at a wet line or fiddling with stakes... just set it and go. Has anyone else made the switch from string to laser and felt like you were cheating?
I got suckered into buying a set of those silicone spacers for keeping mortar joints consistent. Thought they'd save me time on a big retaining wall job I had last month. Paid almost $200 for a full kit from a supplier online. First day using them they kept slipping out of place and the mortar just pushed them around. Ended up having to pull every single one out and go back to my old method of using a piece of rebar to gauge my joints. Wasted half a day fiddling with them and they're sitting in my truck now collecting dust. Anyone else tried these spacer gimmicks and had them fail on the job?
I was on a site last Tuesday near Austin helping with a retaining wall and one of the older guys, must have been 70 or so, was watching me lay some brick. He just said 'tight joints are lazy joints' out of nowhere and walked off. At first I was annoyed, like who is this guy critiquing my spacing without even asking. But later I realized he was right about my mortar joints being too compact (I was rushing to get done before lunch). I started leaving a hair more space for the mortar to breathe and grab, and my wall actually looked cleaner after that. The whole interaction got me thinking about how much I still have to learn from the old school methods. Has anyone else had a random one-liner from a journeyman totally shift how you approach a job?
I've been laying brick for about 5 years now and always mixed my mortar on the wetter side because it was easier to spread. Last month on a job in Arlington, the foreman walked over and told me my mortar was too wet and I'd end up with weak joints. I tested his way with a dryer mix on a small garden wall and the bricks held way better. Has anyone else had to unlearn a bad habit like that?
I was driving through downtown Springfield last week and took a detour past a restaurant remodel I worked on back in 2004. The brickwork on the front facade looks exactly the same as the day we finished it, not a single crack or shifted course. Has anyone else gone back to check on their old work and been surprised at how it held up?
Laid about 200 bricks in a herringbone pattern for a client's backyard patio last month, and by the end of the day the lines looked like a snake crawled through them. I thought I was checking levels every few rows, but the ground must have shifted a bit under the sand base. Has anyone else had issues with herringbone shifting on you like that, or is it just my prep work that was sloppy?
I've been laying brick around Cleveland since 2005, always using the same mix I learned from my old foreman. Last month a structural engineer on a commercial job told me my joints were too soft and failing the test. Has anyone else had to completely redo their mix ratios after thinking they had it down forever?
He didn't use any mortar just dry stacked the whole thing with this crazy precision cutting each brick by eye and I gotta ask how many of you still do dry stack work or is everybody just mixing mud these days?
I was using a 9 inch for years but a buddy let me try his 11 inch on a retaining wall job and I got through 40% more bricks before lunch, has anyone else made the switch and noticed the same thing?
Man, I used to swear by my hawk and trowel for every job. Thought I was saving time slinging mud that way. Then last spring on a big retaining wall in Austin, I kept losing my rhythm with the hawk wobbling on uneven stone. Switched to a good hand board and now I load it once and lay brick for an hour straight. Anyone else find that the extra setup time with a board beats the hassle of a hawk on tricky ground?
I was setting a curved retaining wall for a backyard project, and the base course shifted on me after I had already laid 4 courses on top. The whole corner slumped about 3 inches before I caught it, and I had to tear out 3 hours of work to reset the foundation. Has anyone else gotten burned by trusting a slippery clay base, or was that just my bad luck?
Guy at the supply yard watched me dump water in first. He said stop. Told me to dry mix everything first then add water slow. I argued with him for 5 minutes. Finally tried it on a small retaining wall job in Salem last month. Mixed 4 batches his way and the consistency was perfect every time. No more soupy bottoms or dry pockets. Anyone else get taught wrong by some old timer and never questioned it?