PUTTING up ADOBE WALLS

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Unless your window widths are well over 4 feet (1.2 m.), do not make any allowance in your calculations for windows or doors. This will give you some overallowance for breakage and the loss that always occurs when you have to split bricks.

To start laying your bricks, wet the top of the foundation and place some mortar on it, spreading the mortar with a trowel to a 3/4-inch (2 cm.) thickness. Next, set the two end bricks in the wall or wall section.

Place string guides along the wall by driving two nails in each end brick as shown in Fig. 1. and tying nylon cord between the nails. This will allow you to keep the top of each course level; however, you must take considerable care with the corners to insure that they are straight vertically. Check frequently with your level.

You will also find a story pole useful in keeping each course of bricks at the proper height. A story pole is a pole on which you have marked off the top of each brick course to the top of the wall.

Adobes are, on the average, about 4 inches (10 cm.) thick. The recommended joint thickness is 3/4 inch (2 cm.). If you allow 3/4 inch for the first joint, the top of the first brick should then be marked on your story pole at 4-3/4 inches (12 cm.), the top of the next brick at 9-1/2 inches (24 cm.), and so on, until you reach the desired height of the wall, minus the bond beam. Since adobe is not a perfectly uniform material, the height of the bricks will vary somewhat. I found that mine ranged from 3-1/2 to 5 inches (9-13 cm.). If you simply keep the top of each row level as you put your bricks up, however, the rows will look quite uniform.

Now continue laying your adobes from one corner to the other end. When you start the next row, overlap your adobe bricks by 50 percent (Fig. 1). Fill the vertical joints with mortar after you complete each course. If your bricks are to be plastered over, don't worry about the appearance. However, if they are to be exposed, take care to make the top of each row as straight as possible.

To give the finished bricks a neat, tailored appearance, rake the joint back about half an inch with a raking tool after the mortar has begun to harden but is still workable. Now, take a steel brush and clean the mortar off the bricks themselves.

If you like a "weeping mortar" appearance, do not rake the mortar joints back, but clean the mortar from the bricks before it dries.

ALLOWING FOR DOORS AND WINDOWS

Wherever you intend to place doors and windows in your wall, you must build what is called a rough buck. This is a rough lumber frame that provides a rectangular opening to receive a door or window. The rough buck frame is usually made of 2 X 8 or 2 X 10 lumber braced and supported as shown in Figs. 2 and 3.

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