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This man in the photo could represent me, at the time when I was working as a bricklayers' labor, or as a young bricklayer. Anyhow, it was hard work, but I was strong enough to do it. But let me tell my story about those times.
Dear readers, this is part 2 of our original article, House building in Brisbane Anyhow, as we have said, there were many types of houses being built in the sixties, some of them had a brick base, sometimes it was just front wall, at other times, we built the entire house base 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 must 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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So 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 centimetre 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 explained that and 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 amount 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 mortar-boards 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, D.I.Y. 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, D.I.Y. brickwork. Where I will write how the bricklayer lay bricks, in so many details that you can learn how to do it yourself.
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This blog is, old man-lifeworks
Working as a builders' labor
IS TO BE CONTINUED WITH
D.I.Y. brickwork.
See you soon.
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I believe that on the internet, it is helpful if we keep our personal links handy, so that we can visit our sites from anywhere we are. These links hereunder are some of my links, feel free to visit them.
https://sites.google.com/site/menfrancoreconciliation/
https://sites.google.com/site/prayersofreconciliation/
https://sites.google.com/site/godintheuniverse/
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