Bricklaying for the Do-It-Yourselfer

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You will now have to joint your lead. This does four things. One, it helps to strengthen the wall. Two, it gives the wall a very pleasing appearance. Three, it helps to make the joints waterproof. And finally, it gives them a smooth finish.

1) Start off with the large end of your jointer and do all of the vertical. joints first, using the end of this tool which is convex shaped; you will make concave joints.
2) Do all of the horizontal joints next, using the long part of your jointer. (Don't forget to fill in any voids as previously instructed.)
3) Use the edge of your trowel blade and cut off any mortar burrs that may have formed as you were jointing.
4) Use your soft brush to brush the face of your wall.
5) Do all of the joints a second time, using the heel of the smaller end. Pay particular attention to the spots where the vertical joints meet the horizontal joints. This is called polishing and mitering.

I want to emphasize that you may have to joint more often if you are working in very dry conditions or if you are working with very absorbent brick that need to be jointed after only laying a few units. Common red clay bricks are very absorbent and may have to be watered down before they are laid. The five steps listed will result in a first-rate jointing job. After you have repeated this process to build the lead at the other end of the wall, you will be ready to lay the rest of the courses.

You will now notice that some of the manipulations will be a little different because you will be working from right to left. (The first lead had you working from left to right.) After completing this lead, you will be ready to secure the line with your line blocks to both ends of the wall. Figure 15 shows a line block securing the line on both ends of a wall.

Here's how to do it. Secure the line to the line block by wrapping it around the center of the line block about three times. Next, bring the line around to the wider part of the line block and guide it through the slotted groove. Place the end of the line block on the left end of the wall so that the line is even with the top of the first course in your lead (sort of like a pistol pointing to the right end). Now the tricky part: keep tension on the line and walk to the other end of the wall, letting the line slip through your fingers. Relax your grip and the line block will fall to the floor. When you get to the right end, increase the tension and slide your finger to the end of the lead. Pinch the string with your thumb and index fin ger. This pinch on the line shows you where the shoulder of the line block should be in relation to the extreme right end of the lead.

Place the pinch at the shoulder of the .line block, let the line go through the slotted groove, and finish securing it as you did on the other end. With both line blocks securing the line even with the top of the course you are going to lay, kneel down and sight the top of the line. If you see a sag in the line, you will have to increase the taughtness of the line or you will end up with a sag in your course. Be careful. If you pull too hard you might pull the lead over.

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