Saw a guy buttering a whole row of bricks at once on a job in Phoenix

I was grabbing supplies at a site in Phoenix last Thursday and watched this old timer lay out like 15 bricks on a board, butter them all, then slap them down one after another. He said it saves him about 20 minutes per wall section. Has anyone else tried pre-buttering like that or is it just asking for a mess?

3 comments

3 Comments

rowan9693d ago

...and my buddy tried it on a little retaining wall at his house. He watched a YouTube video about it and thought it looked easy. He buttered up maybe ten bricks on his workbench, got them all nice and even. But he was working in direct sun and the mortar started drying out before he could set the last few. He had to scrape them clean and start over with fresh mud. Now he only does three or four at a time, and only in the shade or when it's cool out.

milam483d agoRising Star

Ugh, @rowan969, been THERE - lost a whole batch of mud to the sun exactly like that.

the_diana3d ago

My neighbor did the exact same thing last summer on a little garden wall. He's got that same YouTube know-it-all confidence and he buttered up eight bricks at once under the hot July sun. By the time he got to number seven, the mortar was all crusty and flaky and wouldn't stick right. He ended up having to chisel the whole row off and start fresh the next morning when it was cooler. It's a hard lesson but once you learn it you never make that mistake again.