Welcome to my article,
House building explained.
Dear readers, today we build many different houses, depending on the country or even the zone where we are living.
Anyhow, we must build houses to live in them, so, in this article we are talking about that, because this is what I did when I came to Brisbane Australia in the sixties. I know that today building houses can be different from then, but not very much. Anyhow, we are going to talk about house brick bases, and working as a brickies labor.
House building in
Brisbane in the sixties, was and is different from the old continent of Europe,
because over there most houses are made of masonry, timber over there is more
expensive than in Australia, and because of the colder climate. You see, thick
walls of masonry absorb the heat during summer and act as storage of this heat
by releasing it slowly during the colder months. Anyhow, houses over there are built mostly
from masons’ bricklayer and concreters, and the carpenters play a smaller part
than they do in Australia.
Therefore, when we
the European migrants came to Australia in the sixties, we thought this is
strange to live in timber houses, and we were surprised to see that the
carpenter played the role of builders, when houses were being built, because in
the sixties most houses were made of timber, we are saying this to compare
houses building, between the old continent and Australia in those times. Now we
are not saying that this was good or bad practice, since we soon accepted the
way of life we found, and we thought there must be a good reason for it.
So, we all did what we had to do in whatever employment we found, and those of us who ended up working in the building industry, we did what we were told to do. But as we know, everything changes with time. As we will see later, when building houses with timber will change even here. Now that we have made this comparison, let us go back to what I was doing myself in helping to build these houses. Therefore, let us talk about how most houses were being built by teams of workers, because that is how we were building houses in Southeast Queensland in the sixties.
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House building in Brisbane in the sixties.
In the sixties and
seventies, most houses building were done from teams of subcontractors, who had
their own team of building workers, even if they were only a small team of two
or three people, like the team I was working with, which had two tradesman and
one labor (myself). Now let me tell you, what sort of teams were there; first there were the concreters and
bricklayers. When building small houses that did not have a lot to do with
these trades, concrete and brickwork could be done from the same team; then
there was the carpenter team, then the roof, the electrician and the plumber
and the plasters. The work of the builder, which most times was the leading
carpenter, because he had the largest job; not only he was building the timber
frame of the house, but had to organize all the teams in a way that was
appropriate, so that they were not in each other way while they were working,
and finally do all the finishing work required.
In those times to
be a builder of these standalone houses on an approved block of land was easy,
as long as you were a building tradesman and had building knowledge and had the
money to build them, you had this opportunity to build one of these houses, of
course there were local authority inspections to be had while we were building,
but if you knew what you were doing it was easy to pass. So, there were many
house builders around that would hire teams of building workers as we were.
I need to say that
the building industry in Australia is one of the main driving forces of the
economy, since it employs lots of people that are willing to do hard physical
work to earn their living, you see you don’t need to be a learned person to
work on the building, all you need is common knowledge of things and enough
English to understand what is wanted from you, if you know what you are doing;
or you work with people that speak your native language and they explain to you
what you need to do, but you had to work hard to keep this job.
I believe that in
the sixties and seventies there were good opportunities to work on building
houses, because the price of the houses was more affordable than they are
today. Just looking back at those prices, we can say that one of those cheaper
houses would be worth about four time the average wage of a person working full
time for a year, so, most people could afford them; therefore, those builders
that were building them were able to sell their houses at a decent profit that
would enable them to build other houses.
As we know things changes with the passing of time. So, let us look at what has taken place, in the houses market. As we have said, in the beginning houses in Brisbane were mostly made of timber, and they were set on timber stumps, then in the sixties because the timber stumps would rot or they would be attacked by white ants they gave way to concrete stumps, and some brick walls under the house. Then from just a brick wall in front of the house they changed to a full brick base and concrete stumps or steel posts, then came the era of the brick veneer and finally concrete and cavity bricks. Today, I must point out that building apartments is different from the sixties, they are mostly made of reinforced concrete.
Now that we have
said a few things about the history of house building in Brisbane, let us talk
about my contribution in the building industry and what I did during the
earlier part of working building houses. If I remember right in my last article,
I was talking about how we were concreting the stumps for a new house, and we
had laid the foundations for brickwork, therefore, let us talk about the
brickwork that we had to do, to build a brick base under the house.
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Brick base under
timber houses.
As we have said,
there were many types of houses being built in the sixties, some of them had a
brick base, or the front wall under the house built in bricks. So, this was
another job that we did with our small team of bricklayer and concrete workers.
In order to be
efficient and competitive a small team that lays bricks needs to be made of two
bricklayers and a labor, of course larger teams can work well with a different
number of people, anyhow this is what was like then and our team had two
bricklayer and a labor as myself.
Now that I have
explained that, let us start working, so that I can describe how things work
out, who does what, and how it should be done. It is the bricklayers’ foreman
that decides from where to start. But if he is not there, then it is up to
whoever is there to start getting ready where the bricklayers must start. This
is not hard to know because to lay bricks you must start from the lowest part
of the foundation, So, when I was working as a bricklayer labor, I would get
ready the bricks and the combo-boards, at the lowest point of the foundation,
so, when the bricklayers had to start, all I had to do, was to give them fresh
mixed mortar on these combo-boards, and then continue to supply them with brick
and mortar as required.
Here I should say,
that it is hard work for the bricklayer-labor and for the bricklayers, because
at the end of the day one has to handle so many bricks, since in a day a
bricklayer on a normal wall is supposed to lay on average 400 to 500 face
bricks, or up to a thousand common bricks, of course this is wishful thinking
and most times we didn’t, but we had to try to get there; this is how the bricklayers’
team works. Now let me break it down and describe what the labor does, and
then what the bricklayers have to do; I know all this because later I became
and worked as a bricklayer for decades myself, but now let us talk about what
the bricklayers’ labor does.
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Working as a
bricklayer labor.
What you do, when you are working as a brickies labor.
The brickies labor
job is hard work, it is also a semiskilled work, since he has got to know how
to make mortar and to supply mortar and bricks to the bricklayer at the right
time in the right place. It is obvious that he must have at his disposition a
mixer to mix mortar and wheelbarrows, other small devises to help him achieve
that.
Here I need to
point out that to start a new job it is very hard, as the ground on the site is
not flat and there are hips of dirt around the foundations where the brick or
block walls are going to be built, so, the labor needs first to flatten the
ground a bit, so that the mortar boards and the bricks can be positioned at the
right distance from the foundation, this is about 60 centimeter plus from the
walls that are being built, so that the bricklayers have enough room to move
and at the same time they can reach the bricks and the mortar-boards without
walking; in order to achieve that there needs to be one mortar boards and then
one stack of bricks, and again one mortar board and another stack of brick, and
so on for the whole length of the wall being built. Now that we have made it
ready, the bricklayers are going to start to lay bricks, let me prepare the
mortar, which some people may call cement or combo.
Preparing or mixing
the mortar
There are rules to
follow how to mix good mortar, so, one must keep in mind first what sort of
material is available and can be delivered on the local site, because quantity
and quality may vary with the locality. Anyhow, let us assume that for this job
a load of brickies loam has been delivered on the site; in this case this
brickies loam has some lumps in it, so, it needs to be screened before or after
mixing the mortar, as I have screened it, I am ready to mix it now.
So, I start the
mixer and put in clean water, and a small measure of mortar mix (this is a
chemical that helps the mortar to be more workable) then I put in say a shovel
full of Portland cement and four shovels full of brickies loam, this is how we
usually mix mortar to lay bricks, it is one part of cement to four parts of
loam by volume, therefore, for bigger batches you can have say; three shovels
full of cement and twelve shovelful of loam and so on. Of course, these
quantities can vary, if for instance it is written in the specifications that
the mortar must be made with different amounts of materials.
Anyhow, let me go
back to this batch of mortar that I have mixed to the right consistency; Now, I
take the wheelbarrow near the mixer and tip the mortar in the wheelbarrow, and
then take the wheelbarrow with the mortar near the mortar boards, here I wet
the mortarboards before I place the mortar on them and finally I am ready for
the bricklayers to get started. From now on I must make sure that the bricklayers
have always enough mortar and bricks, otherwise they will we shouting at me
Bricks! Or combo! (Or mortar!).
Dear readers, if I
have missed a few things you have to use your own common sense to get
everything going the right way, you see, most things on the building site is
plain common sense.
I believe that I
have said enough in this article, although there is a lot more to be said, how
the bricklayers are going to lay bricks for this brick base. But I am going to
leave it for next article, which we are going to call, DIY brickwork, there I
will try to explain it in as many details as I can, how to build a house brick
base. In fact, we are going to write a group of articles about bricklaying and
other building trades; I hope that I can line them up in such a way that they make
sense and it is easy to follow. Anyhow, see you soon in our next article,
To see more click on this link, House building in Brisbane.
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