The day I figured out I was buttering my bricks instead of my joints

I've been laying brick for about 12 years now, mostly residential stuff around Austin. About 6 months back I was working on a retaining wall for a guy named Pete, and he comes out to check my progress. He watches me for a minute, then asks why I'm putting so much mortar on the face of the brick before I butter the end. I told him that's just how I learned - spread a big glob on the face and scoop it onto the end. He just shakes his head and says 'you're doing it backwards, you're just smearing mud where it don't need to be.' Turns out I was wasting probably a quarter of my mortar every day because I was buttering the wrong face first. Now I put it right on the head joint and barely touch the face. I still cringe thinking about all those extra clean-up hours. Anybody else learn a basic trick way later than they should have?

3 comments

3 Comments

cora5181mo ago

Oh man, that reminds me of when I figured out I was using way too much caulk on my window trim for years. A buddy finally showed me to cut the tip smaller and go slower, and suddenly no more messy cleanups every time!

spencer_park261mo ago

I mean, I get where @cora518 is coming from, but honestly I kind of see it the other way. Cutting the tip smaller makes you think you're saving caulk but then you end up having to do way more passes to fill the gap, which is just more work and more chances to mess up. I've been using the same technique for like ten years now where I cut a bigger tip but use a damp finger to smooth it out immediately, and that gives me way cleaner lines without the constant fiddling. The real trick for me was just accepting that caulking is messy no matter what and planning for cleanup instead of trying to avoid it entirely. Plus if you're using a paintable caulk, a little extra never hurts because you can always sand it down later.

diana6171mo ago

Wait, sanding caulk doesn't work quite like that. It'll tear before it sands smooth in my experience.