I spent 5 years buttering bricks the hard way until a foreman in Cleveland showed me the trick

Honestly, I had no idea I was putting mortar on the wrong face of the brick until this old foreman stopped me on a commercial job downtown. He pointed out that I was buttering the head joint first then the bed, and that was making my lines uneven. He showed me to do it in one smooth motion from the back to the front and it cut my time by like 30%. Has anyone else had a basic technique handed down that totally changed how you work?

2 comments

2 Comments

oscarb7714d ago

I read somewhere that the "butter the bed first" mistake is super common with guys who learned on their own or from YouTube. I've seen it a lot on smaller residential jobs where nobody's checking your technique. One smooth motion from back to front sounds right though, keeps the mud from drying out before you set the brick and gives you way better control over your joints.

the_pat14d ago

Hold up, I gotta push back on this one. Buttering the bed first is actually the way I was taught by a third generation mason in Philly and my lines are tight as hell. When you smooth the mud from the back to the front you end up pushing all the excess to the front, then you got to clean it up or it squishes out and makes a mess. Doing the bed first gives you a consistent base, then you can just flick the head joint on and drop the brick in place without dragging all that mortar across your whole work area. I've timed it both ways and the "smooth motion" guys always end up wiping more joints after. What happens when you hit a corner or need to adjust a brick that's already set?