Bricklaying for the Do-It-Yourselfer

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You will need a line to do this ranging. Figure 14 shows how to secure a line block to one end of the line and figure 15 shows the extended line. You will tap the brick in or out very lightly with your trowel so that the leading edge of the brick is back from the line just a fragment (about 1/32"). This ranging will be accomplished by anchoring the line as indicated in figure 15 and lightly tapping the ends of the brick in or out so that they are in alignment with each other.

The first and last brick have been laid. The rest of the brick are sitting as a dry layout. The line is up and now we are ready to lay the unlaid brick to die line. Time for a new word-"arris" (sounds like "air iss"). An arris is an edge where two Surfaces meet (see figure 16).

Push down on the back arris of the first brick to be laid with the four fingers of your hand. The brick will roll LIP. Put your thumb on the face. Keep the brick in your hand and get enough mud on your trowel to make a mortar joint on the end of the brick (this is called a head joint). Rotate the brick so that the left end is LIP. Use the tip of your trowel and put the mortar joint on the end of the brick. Place the brick in the spot it came from. Make the mortar joint the same size as the space you are leaving for the next joint. Do this gently so that you do not move the brick you are placing the brick against. Make the top arris even with the line and keep the brick back from the line about 1/32" Whenever you are laying any units of masonry to a line, never lay the unit so that it touches the line. If you do, you will get what we call accumulated error, which occurs when the brick start to push the line outward, resulting in a how in the wall.

The last brick to be laid in each course is called the "closure." To lay this unit, put a regular head joint on the closure brick and use the tip of your trowel to plaster a joint on the brick that will have the closure laid next to it. If necessary, after the closure has been laid, pack the joint full using the tip of your trowel. Hopefully, you were accurate and all of the head joints look to be the same size. The next step is to join the vertical joints and also the bed joint. Use the large end of your 5/8" x 3/4" jointer and compress all of the mortar joints by pushing and pulling down for the verticals and pushing and pulling across for the horizontal bed joint. Use up-and-down and back-and-forth motions for the jointing. Some brick are extremely absorbent and a mason can only lay two or three before lie has to stop and joint, Other brick can be jointed an hour or even two after they have been laid. If you have used concrete brick units, they can be jointed a half hour or more before the mortar sets too hard to joint. As you are jointing, you may notice unfilled spots, or voids, in some of your mortar joints. To fill them in, get a small quantity of mortar on your trowel and hold it vertically (tip of blade up). Grasp one end of your jointer and lay the tip of the other end into the mortar on your trowel. A small quantity of mortar will adhere to the jointer and you simply pack it into the void. Repeat as often as necessary. You have now successfully laid the layout course and are waiting for the next step. This will be to build a lead on each end of the wall.

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