Welcome to our article, D.I.Y brickwork,
D I Y brickwork
D I Y brickwork
Dear readers, since in my entire life I have
been building or repairing houses, I have been thinking that it could be
helpful if I share some of my knowledge with you all. I believe that there are
a lot of people that would like to do some building work themselves; so, we
would like to help those people that are willing to do some building work
themselves by using our own accumulated building knowledge; I know that because,
I have been in that position myself, so I understand their point of view. Of
course, why they want to do this building work themselves may have different
reasons and most times is just to save money. But, to do any sort of building
work, whether it is building a house or just some repairs, one must at least
know in theory what needs to be done, unless one is already a tradesman and
knows what to do. So, it would be wise at least to read some articles about
what you are going to build or fix, and this is where we would be able to help
you for free, we would like to do that just because it is going to make me the
writer feel better, because I have been able to help somebody without costing
me anything accept the time of writing this article, and the reason is
explained here under.
I am writing this article about brickwork,
since I have been a bricklayer all my life, I am partly retired now from doing
this building work, so, I have been thinking that leaving behind all my life
building knowledge would be a waste, for this reason in my old age I would like
to share my building knowledge, and for this reason I have written this article
called, DIY brickwork if you like; where we would like to show you how to build
with bricks, in fact we are going to take you on a journey that we have already
started in my other articles about the story of my life; so while we are
continuing telling you our life story, and at this moment we have reached the
stage when I became a bricklayer, while we are telling you how bricklaying is
done, I have thought that it would be good to tell our readers how to build a
brick base for houses step by step for a start.
So, dear readers please note that this
article here is the first article about building with bricks, it will be
followed by several other building articles, therefore, we hope that you would
be interested in following us, because we would like to share our bricklaying
knowledge and also other building knowledge with you; not only because it gives
me another excuse to write a useful article, but also because then I would feel
that I have contributed in a small way to the community by sharing what I have
learned during my life; therefore, we would like to interest you our readers to
read these articles and learn from them at least in theory how to lay bricks,
just in case one day you would like to do some brickwork yourself in the
future, because if you do then you already have at least some idea of what
knowledge is required to do the job.
As we all know, we need to learn things if we
want to do them and we are born with the capacity to learn things; so, we
believe that most people would be able to do lots of building work themselves,
if they are shown how they can do it; therefore in this first article we will
talk about the following activities; (1) How to build with bricks and other
things; (2) Building a brick base for houses. (3) Bricklayer laying bricks. (4)
Getting ready to lay bricks. (5) Making sure that we start the brickwork level,
and Laying bricks on a sloping site; these are the main items that we are
talking in this hub. Of course there is still a lot more to say about
bricklaying, but this article might become too long to describe most of the
things that need to be done from beginning to end, so we are going to continue
with DIY brickwork in our next hub; Building a brick base and we will continue
to write about brickwork until we complete the brick base at least, even if we
have to write several articles about brickwork. But before we do that let us
say a few things about my own personal experience as a bricklayer and building
houses with bricks. Here I would like also to add that most time I might be
repeating a few things over and over again, because that is how laying bricks
is done, bricklaying is a very repetitive job, anyhow I will try to keep my
repetitions to a minimum.
Building with bricks and other
things
Dear readers, forgive me if I repeat this
phrase here again; for my entire life in Australia I have worked in house
building or repair, but the best trade that I know is bricklaying as I have
worked as a bricklayer most of my life, therefore, I would like to share my
bricklaying knowledge with you, before I would share other knowledge that could
be also useful during our life, since we all live in building accommodations,
and therefore any knowledge of building houses, or maintaining that building
accommodation we live in could be helpful to most of us. So here and now, we
are going to share this knowledge with you as I have said, in all aspect of
building, repairing or owning a house; so let us start with building something
with bricks, because as I have said I am a bricklayer.
But before we start that let me explain why I
would like to do that again; you see, I have to say that this article may have
a double purpose one is to tell you about building, but at the same time I am
telling you the story of my life and what I believe any of us should be doing;
I believe that it is the duty of any human being to help humanity to improve
their standard of living, (an article about this is written at this web
address; www.frankmenchise.com, if it
does not work from here try to Google it in Google search bar) therefore we are
saying in this article that anything that one learns during one’s life should
be passed to the future generations. I know that in the past some trade people
tried to hold on their knowledge so that they would be employed if they were
required to do certain jobs, but that is in the past and today that would not
help much anyhow, so let me try to pass to my readers some of my hard learned
knowledge, starting with how a bricklayer would go about and build a brick base
for a house.
Now before we do that, because it is hard to
visualize some aspect of the bricklaying trade just by describing them, we are
going to use some visual lings from the internet to show you a few things about
bricklaying, so that it would become easier for you to follow our ways of how
to build this house brick base, I know that these are not my videos, but you
see, ones you publish anything on the Internet those things are supposed to be
shared from the rest of the community, at the same time whoever has published
them can still claim to be the owner.
How to
Learn the Basics of Bricklaying - YouTube
This link above is for people
that don't know much how you lay bricks, however it is a starting point, of
course there are things that a real bricklayer would not do, but there are
also very useful hints for a beginner.
How
to Bricklaying Tips
and Techniques DIY - YouTube
This link above shows you other things and if
you are able to use this together with what you have learned from the other
links, you are on the way of learning how to lay bricks.
How To
Lay Bricks Like A Bricklayer - YouTube
This link
above shows you how a real bricklayer would finish his face brick wall, of
course even here you cannot learn everything, and so if you are not a
bricklayer, you need to visit most of other links here.
Now that we have pasted some of these helpful
links here and we are pasting another one below in this article, let us
continue how to build a brick base of houses.
-----------------------------
Building a brick base for houses
Okay, I know that some of you are going to
say that this article is not exactly what it claims to be, because it cannot
really teach you how to lay bricks from scratch for an entire house base, as
this takes a lot of knowledge and a long time if you want to do it properly. So
it should have been called with a different name, perhaps its name should not
have been, Building a brick base for houses, but how a bricklayer would build a
house brick base for a new houses; since this is what really we are talking
about in this article, but while I was writing this article it became obvious
that I was going to write so many details that it was like teaching somebody
how to do it yourself, so I changed the hub name to DIY brickwork. At this
point of time our intentions are that we are going to write a few or several
articles mainly about brickwork as I have been a bricklayer most of my life,
then I might also write other articles with whatever I know about other
building trades like concreting and other helpful hints that might help whoever
has the intention of building something themselves, I hope this would help our
readers that are willing to have a go at building something themselves.
So, now let us go back to what we were going
to talk about in this article; now, if you have read our previous hub called
“house building in Brisbane” you would remember that we were explaining what we
were doing on the building sites, when we were building a new house and we had
reached the point where we were ready for the bricklayer to start laying bricks
for this house brick base, click on this link to check it out, House building in Brisbane
Now what is going to follow here is how we
bricklayers lay these bricks; now I need also to tell you that I am not
speaking any more with the knowledge of the brickies labour that I was, when I
was getting everything ready for the bricklayers to start work, in our last hub
called, House building in Brisbane, but I am speaking with the knowledge that I
acquired when I became a bricklayer and later on in life during the long time
that I have worked as a bricklayer, and I may add that what I am writing here
can also apply to other brickwork in general terms, as bricklaying is a
repetitive job and once you have acquired the skills how to do one job, you may
easily use this knowledge to do a different job, so, DIY brickwork, is a possible
name that I could have given also to this hub.
So now that I have explained myself, let me
just take you step by step how the bricklayers have to work, when building
these brick bases for houses, so that any of you that have in mind to do some
of this bricklaying work yourself have some ideas of what you need to know, and
here I am talking about the basic knowhow that is required to lay bricks the
right way, you see you need this basic knowledge because once you have laid the
bricks and the mortar becomes hard it is a very hard and costly job to fix it,
if you have made any mistakes. I have to say also that it is very easy to make
mistakes here, unless you are an expert and really know what you are doing. So,
let us follow how a professional bricklayer would start the house base, because
there are a lot of things that must be kept in mind all at the same time before
you even start laying the first brick.
The most important thing is that you start
laying the first brick in the right spot at the right level, and this should be
done at the lowest point of the foundation wherever is practicable when the
site is not level, otherwise you could encounter real problems later on; so,
how we bricklayers go about to achieve that you may ask?
Okay, here we have to assume that some of you
our reader may not know anything about bricklaying, so it would be wise if we
are able to show or at least describe to you a bricklayer laying bricks and
then we will proceed to build the house brick base.
---------------------------------------------
Bricklayer laying bricks
Therefore, let us describe very briefly how
the bricklayer lays bricks, so that those that have never seen it done can have
some idea how it is done. Let us say this first of all, most of us are right
handed by nature, but a few of us are left handed also; now let us assume that
the bricklayer we are going to talk about is right handed, so, he holds his
trowel in his right hand and picks the bricks with his left hand; now let us go
back to one of our last articles called House building in Brisbane, there we were getting everything ready
for the bricklayers to lay bricks; so we had set combo-board and a stack of
bricks and then again a combo-board and a stack of bricks and so on.
Now that you have this picture of the setup
you can see when the bricklayer lays bricks, first he spreads his mortar bed on
the bricks by picking up a trowel full of mortar and while he tips his trowel
to let the mortar fall on the bricks he pulls back his harm towards his elbow
so that a long spread is achieved, if he likes to spread a long bed then he
picks a few more trowel full of mortar and spreads it, then he fix this mortar
with his trowel more evenly and at the end he uses the tip of the trowel to
split his mortar and also collect the extra mortar on both sides, then he picks
up a brick with his left hand and at the same time he picks up a bit of mortar
on the tip of his trowel, while he turns toward the wall he sticks to the head
of this brick the mortar that he picked up and now he can lay his brick, these
are the main things that we can describe here, and it would be hard to say
more, unless you can see how it is done, so I have found a bit of a video from
YouTube to show you.
Here are a few videos from YouTube to show
you how some bricklaying is done.
The Art of Laying Brick - YouTube
These two links above would be very helpful
if they work, because one shows a bricklayer laying brick and explaining how it
is done step by step; the other link shows photos of many types of brick walls
already built, many types of bonds and also brick walls while they are being
built, let us hope that these links works for you, if they don’t try to copy
them in Google search bar and use Google engine to find them.
We also strongly advise that if you really
want to do a bricklaying job yourself, you should practice how to lay bricks
before you start, as some people may find that it is harder than it looks and
also think about it, practice make perfect.
Now that we have explained how the bricklayer
lays bricks very briefly, let us go back and explain hereunder the procedure
and what you need to know before we start laying bricks, while we are getting
ready to lay the first brick on this house brick base.
But before we do that we would like to point
out to you that you need to learn about some important tools that the
bricklayer uses, and we are particularly going to talk to you about how to use
and check the spirit level and make sure that it is okay, you see some people
that don’t know enough may have a surprise, when they use their spirit level
and find that what they thought was level a minute ago now it is not.
-----------------------------------
The spirit level
The bricklayers have many tools in order to
be able to do their job well, and they should know how to use them properly;
the two most important tools are the trowel and the spirit level, without these
two tools the bricklayers cannot work, so, let us explain how they are used and
how to use them properly and above all let us check the spirit level, as I have
seen some DIY or even some new tradesman that have made some mistakes just
because they do not know how to check if their spirit level is right.
So in this article let us assume that just
anyone can easily learn how to use the trowel, since the trowel is like a big
flat spoon that picks up the mortar and lays it on the bricks or sticks the
mortar to the bricks, it is also used to tap the brick to the right level and
the right place and a good bricklayer can use it also to cut the bricks, all
these action of the trowel are easy to understand and slowly one can just learn
how to use it, but the spirit level is not as simple, therefore, before we are
going to lay bricks for our brick base, let us see how to use the spirit level
and above all how to check that your spirit level is working right.
So, let us talk about the spirit level; first
of all most bricklayers use a 4 foot spirit level, most of these modern levels
have three bubbles in it and they are very accurate, the two end bubbles are
for plumbing (reading if the walls or posts are exactly vertical) the central
bubble is for reading if the walls or whatever are level, now these levels are
supposed to be set right and if they are set right there is to problem when you
use them, but what about if these bubbles for some reason have gone out of
their proper settings and when you read them they give you a false reading?
Any good tradesman that uses these levels
should know how to check if they are right or not, but at the same time let us
assume that some of our readers are not tradesman, so, they would like to know
how to check if the level they are going to use is still okay? To check if your
level is okay you should do the following:
First of all les us check the plumb bubbles;
to check the plumbing bubbles, pick up your level, chose a post or wall that
you think is strait and plumb, put one side of you level right against it and
while lightly pushing against it check that the level touches evenly the
surface you have chosen, if it does then without moving it look at the bubble
level if it is right in the centre, if it is right in the centre then it is
plumb, but to make sure that it is plumb you need to turn your level around 180
degrees in such a way that the face of the level that is now against the wall
is away from the wall and the other side is against the wall, if here again the
bubble is exactly in the centre then you know that that part of the wall you
have chosen is plumb, and you also know that the bubble in your level is set
right since you have compared it to the other side of itself.
Now that you have done that, turn your level
upside down, so that you can check the other plumb bubble, if this bubble is
also set right, the bubble should again be in the centre just like the other
bubble, and when you turn you level around as before it should again be in the
centre; but if it is not then this bubble is out and should not be used for
plumbing.
To see how much it is out you can do the
following, put your level against the wall look at the bubble, let us say that
it seems that the wall is leaning away from you, because for the bubble to be
in the centre you have to move the top of your level away from the wall, say 10
mm. In this case by turning your level around 180 degrees you are going to have
an opposite reading, and you need to move the bottom of the level away from the
wall 10 mm for the bubble to be in the centre, so if you are still going to use
this level to do the job, you need to mark which bubble is right and which is
not. Okay we have checked the plumb bubbles and we know what we have to do to
keep our brickwork plumb, we have to use the good bubble only.
Okay, we have checked the plumb bubbles and
we are now going to check the level bubble, to check the level bubble, pick up
your level, chose a wall or a bench that you think is level and do the
following, place the level on it and if it the bubble level is in the centre
then it is level, now you need to check that this bubble is really right; so,
you need to make sure that you check this bubble against itself; in order to do
this mark exactly where your level is; then turn your level around 180 degrees
so that the end that was on the west side is now on the east side and the end
on the east side is now on the west side, if the bubble reading is again in the
centre as before your level is set right and you can use it. But if it is not
then you might have to buy a new level, if you don’t know how to fix it and you
don’t want to make costly mistakes.
You can also check how far out it is and
sometimes you could find a way how to adjust the bubble, but if you have to do
a lot of work buy a new level.
What we have written above is common
knowledge to real tradesman, and any tradesman knows that spirit levels are
perhaps the most important tool that they should have. Anyhow now that we have
done that we can go back to work on our brick base.
Getting ready to
lay bricks
As we have already said in our previous hubs,
when you have to start building a house, the first thing that is necessary to
do on a building site is to set up a profile, in order to make sure that the
house is set where the house plan says it should be, therefore a profile should
already be there and if it is not, then one should be erected prior to
commencing to lay bricks. Now just to make things a bit easier let us assume
that the profile are already in place, and also that there are no other
previous works done on the house, therefore there is no set or fixed height of
the finished brickwork take or leave one brick thickness.
So now let us explain the procedure when we
start working on this brick base of the house; first of all, we bricklayers go
to the profiles and tie the end of the brickies line where it says it should
be, and this is the outside alignment of the house, then walk to the opposite
side while unrolling the line and tie it again where it should be on the marked
profile; here I need to point out to the DIY for the first time that the line
must be stretched very tight, so that it stays in a straight line even if there
is a wind blowing. Now that we have set the first line, we are going to set
another line right across the first line and where these two lines meet is the
very first corner of the brick wall of the house.
Now with a plump bob or a spirit level mark
on to the foundation where the outside corner of the first brick is going to be
laid, and you are ready to lay the first brick. Of course it is necessary to
repeat this procedure for every corner of the house. It is also necessary or
perhaps helpful when the foundation of the house is not level to mark all the
steps, so that you know that the wall is exactly in the right place; you see to
start laying bricks in the foundation is a very hard and demanding job for the
bricklayers, let us just imagine that you have to lay bricks below where you
are standing, and where you are standing is uneven ground and if you are
unlucky it might even be wet. So if you can make everything easier by marking all
the critical points it would help. This of course is only step one to ensure
that the brick walls are going to be in the right place, and step two is about
levels, so let us see how these two critical things could be done together.
--------------------------------
How to start the brickwork level
Now that we have marked all the corners and
everywhere else, so that we can start building this brick base on the right
alignment we need to start also thinking about the levels; you see 99% of the
bricks must be laid level and plumb, unless there is a specific reason for the
walls to be leaning and this reason must be well understood, before we start
laying bricks for this special sort of job and we have to say that this does
not happen when we build houses.
Anyhow, in order to start the brickwork
level, we need to know if the two opposite corner are exactly level, and if not
what is the difference between them, so that we will be able to start the brick
walls at the right level. With short walls it is enough to use the spirit level
to do everything, but with longer walls we need to use other sophisticated
levels. Therefore it is necessary to mark the levels on every corner, so that
the difference is known to the bricklayers before he starts laying bricks,
because most of the difference must be rectified well below ground level and if
possible on the first course of bricks that we lay on the foundation.
Today there are a few types of level that we
can use, some of these levels are very expensive like surveyors level and other
types, they also need an expert to use them and a helper at the other end to
mark when instructed to do so, therefore it is very helpful if one of these
levels is being used on the site to mark all the levels around the house base
for all the trades that are working on the house, but there are times when the
bricklayers are left to their own devises, and they have to work out their own
levels.
Now the bricklayers have already so many
tools to carry around including the mixer and wheelbarrows, therefore they try
to avoid carrying expansive levels with themselves even when they know how to
use them. So, some bricklayers use even today the water level, because it is
most simple and cheap level, as it is only a clear hose filled up with water
and it is very easy to use, all you have to do is to fill up this hose with
clean water and at the same time make sure that there are no air bubbles in it
and you have a very accurate level ready to use.
Let us explain how the clear hose water level
works, when you fill the hose up with water, make sure that there are no air
bubbles left in it, if there are no bubbles, then the water in the two ends of
the hose should always be level, whether they are beside each other (and this
is the way to check it out if it is working properly) or when they are far
apart. So if you mark the top of a brick on a corner that you have already
built you can mark this same level on the other corner, and therefore you know
that this two marked points are level; then, you should stretch a brickies line
between these two points making sure that the line sits exactly on the mark
that you have made; now all the level below this line can be worked out easily
from the bricklayer, using a type measure or a gauge rod.
The bricklayer can work out what to do if
there is any difference on the foundation, and also make sure that it is the
same course of bricks by running a full course of bricks between these two
marked points, at this stage the bricklayer not only has to take care that the
wall is at the right alignment, he also has to make sure that the brick are
laid level, and at the same time he needs to make sure about the bond,
therefore the easiest way to achieve that is to start from the lowest corner
and lay a full course of bricks until he reaches the other corner, this will
make sure that the brickwork is started level and with the right bond. This
procedure should now be repeated also on the other walls until all the walls
are set up, if everything is done properly we should end up with the last wall
being the easiest to start, since we have already set both corner to build the
other walls, but be careful here that there is not a pig in it, which sometimes
can even happen when we are not careful enough and the line is set on the wrong
course of bricks.
Explaining what is meant that there is a pig
in it and how to make sure that everything is set right from the very
beginning. To make 100% sure that everything is level and that there is no pig
in the brickwork, it is necessary that you run a full course of bricks all
around the building at the same level, if that can be done and there is no
brick sticking out it is okay. I hope that I have explained it clear enough.
Now let us see how this can be avoided when we are working on a sloping site
and the foundations have several steps in it, because this is the most likely
place that a mistake could be made.
------------------------------------------
Laying bricks on a sloping site
Laying bricks on a sloping site
As we have already said before, the most
important thing in bricklaying is that the bricks must be laid at the right
alignment, straight, plumb and level and when building a face brick wall the
bricklayer should pay particular attention to these details, we will be coming
back to discuss this issue soon, as for the time being we want to start
building a brick base for houses, beginning from the first course of bricks
that we lay on the foundations, therefore it would be better to concentrate on
this single issue, as it is very important to start the brickwork right from
the beginning.
Now, to lay bricks on a level site it is
easy, as you can see from this picture beside here; also to lay bricks on a
level foundation is also easy, you see you can build another corner as the one
shown here at the other end, and by using a brickies line on line blocks you
can stretch a tight line and lay bricks in a straight line easily. Of course
here we have assumed that the foundations have been laid level, but on a
stepped foundations it is not that easy, because even the concreters may not
have been able to lay the foundations level, because the concrete moves until
it sets, therefore the bricklayers need to check and recheck the levels when
they start bricklaying on a sloping site. One of the easiest ways to do that is
to mark levels on the profiles all around the building site; then you can
stretch a bricklayer tight line between these levels and measure from the line
down to check your levels, ether with a type measure or a gauge rod.
I know now that you are saying, what is a
gauge rod? Okay, a gauge rod is usually made from a long marked peace of timber
that the bricklayer marks himself, once he knows what sort of bricks he is
going to lay and how thick these bricks are and also what would be the best thickness
of the joints for this sort of brickwork. I know that the gauge rod sounds like
a strange devise for those that are not used to work for bricklayers, but
really it is only a straightedge that has been marked with the space of each
brick, so that you can quickly know how many course of bricks have to be laid
in the space that you are measuring. Now in order to decide the spaces on the
gauge the bricklayer Forman measures the thickness of four bricks that have
been laid with an average and attractive joint, and from these measurements he
makes his gauge rod for this particular job; here it follows that when the
gauge rod is not handy we bricklayer talk about this space as the gauge that is
supposed to be kept on this building site, which is four course of bricks. As
you can see there are many jargon words in this trade, and there are also many
other strange devises or tools that help the bricklayers do his job, which I
would like to talk about some of them, as we go on building this house brick
base, or other brickwork in general.
Anyhow, I believe that this hub is becoming
too long and perhaps a bit difficult to understand for DIY for the first time,
as there are too many things to keep in mind all at the same time, and since
there is a lot more that could be said about bricklaying, I think that it would
be better to write another hub about it; which we are going to call, Building a
brick base, or Bricklaying on a sloping site, where we are going to explain in
more details how the work should be done and how to avoid to make mistakes.
Please note; these DIY building articles
should really be read one after the other to make sense, so here is the link of
our next building article. Building a brick base
See you soon.
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