Part two, DIY brickwork.

WELCOME TO OUR BLOG YOU ARE INVITED , TO BROWSE AS LONG AS YOU LIKE. Anyhow, here I will publish my own diary and what I see happening in the world, and when I do not have much to say, I will write posts from my life story. 

Anyhow, you can also find this article at, http://oldman-lifeworks.blogspot.com,  

My other sites; https://sites.google.com/site/menfrancoreconciliation/  

Farming today compared to the old way, My life my struggles, 

Hub Pages, DIY brickwork. and this article at this link, DIY brickwork. 

After learning how to use the trowel porperly, a bricklayer should know how to use the spirit level, because bricks or blocks are laid level and plumb, so, bricklayers need to use a very accurate spirit level, and know how to use it properly. 

Bricklayer must have a good lrvel, you see, a good quality spirit level is necessary to do a good job, as I have said, bricks must be laid level and plumb, and this can only be done with a good level. The bricklayers' most used level is 1.2 metre long. 

Explaining the spirit level. 

The bricklayers need many tools 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 to use them properly and above all let us check the spirit level, as I have seen some DIYS make mistakes, because they do not know, how to check if their spirit level is right.

So, in this article let us assume that 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 learn how to use it, but the spirit level is not as simple, therefore, let us see how to use the spirit level, and above all how to check that your spirit level is working properly.

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. 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 must know how to check if they are right or not, but let us assume that our readers are not tradesman, so, they want to know how to check if the level they are going to use is okay? To check if your level is okay, you should do the following:

First let 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.

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. What we have written above is common knowledge to good tradesman.

 

Before you start work on a stand alone house or any other building, it is necessary to erect the profiles and mark them according to the plan measurement. above is a typical profile. 

This is a typical main floor house plan, this is the plan where most of the measurement are shown, even if there is another floor below or above, you need this to take your measurements. 

Getting ready to lay bricks. 

Anyhow, when you start building a stand alone house, on a blok of land, the first thing that is necessary to do is to set up a profile, to make sure that the house is set where the house plan says it should be, therefore, a profile must be there before you start laying bricks. Now to make things easier let us assume that the profile is already in place.

So, let us explain the procedure when we start working on this brick base. First, we bricklayers go to the profiles and tie the end of the bricklayers’ line, on the outside alignment of the house, then walk to the opposite side while unrolling the line and tie it in the same position. 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 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 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 imagine that you have to lay bricks below the level 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 helps. 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 can be done together.

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How to start the brickwork level. 

Now that we have marked all the corners, we can start building this brick base on the right alignment, but we need to think 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, but this does not happen when we build houses.

Anyhow, to start the brickwork level, we need to know if the two opposite corners are level, and if they are not, what is the difference between them, so that we can 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 several 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 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 a simple and cheap level, as it is only a clear hose filled up with water and it is 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, 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, 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 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 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. 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 can be made.

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Photo showing, a five course brick corner, on a cocrete slab, this is one of the easiest coners to build.  

Laying bricks on a sloping site. 

As we have said, 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, beginning from the first course of bricks that we lay on the foundations, therefore, it is better to concentrate on this single issue, because it is very important to start the brickwork right from the beginning.

Now, to lay bricks on a level site it is easy; also, to lay bricks on a level foundation is easy, you see, you can build another corner as the one shown here at the other end, and by using a brickies line, with 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 that you are saying, what is a gauge rod? Okay, a gauge rod is usually made from a long-marked piece 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 what is the best thickness of the joints for this brickwork. I know that the gauge rod sounds like a strange devise for those that are not used to work with bricklayers, but really it is only a straightedge that has been marked with the space of each brick including the joint, so that you can quickly know how many courses of bricks must be laid in the space that you are measuring.

Let me explain, 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.

Anyhow, I believe that this article is becoming too long, and difficult to understand for DIY for the first time, as there are too many things to keep in mind, and since there is a lot more that can be said about bricklaying, I think that it is better to write another article or two 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 must be done and how to avoid to make mistakes.

Please note: these DIY building articles should be read one after the other to make sense, so, here is the link of our next building article. Building a brick base. 

To see more click on this link, DIY brickwork.

See you soon.

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Learn DIY brickwork.

WELCOME TO OUR BLOG YOU ARE INVITED , TO BROWSE AS LONG AS YOU LIKE. Anyhow, here I will publish my own diary and what I see happening in the world, and when I do not have much to say, I will write posts from my life story. 

Anyhow, you can also find this article at, http://oldman-lifeworks.blogspot.com,  

My other sites; https://sites.google.com/site/menfrancoreconciliation/  

Farming today compared to the old way, My life my struggles, 

Hub Pages, DIY brickwork. and this article at this link, DIY brickwork. 

  A bricklayer laying bricks on a single wall in stretcher bond. Note how the mortar has been spread and treammed back and how he lays his bricks following his line. You can also note the position of the mortar board and the bricks, they have nees set like that, for the bricklayer to reach them easily. 

Welcome to our article, DIY brickwork. 

Dear readers, the original article of D.I.Y. brickwork is a long article; so, we are going to divide it up make, a few blogs, if you want to read it in the original form, click on the link above. Anyhow, I am writing this article ‘DIY brickwork’, because I am a bricklayer by trade, so, I want to share my knowledge with you.

I believe that even today, there are things that we must do ourselves, or employ qualified trades people to do the work. So, building knowledge can be helpful, for people that want to build something themselves.

So, we are writing this article of, DIY brickwork, to help people that want to do some building work. In this article, we are describing how to lay bricks and other building works. I know that people can appreciate this for different reasons, and most times could be just to save money.

But, to do any building work, whether is just repairs, or build a small something, or build a house, we must at least know in theory what needs to be done, unless we are tradesmen and knows what to do. So, it is wise to read articles about build. So, in this article we are going to write what we think can be helpful and paste articles that we think are helpful to learn how to build or repair things. 

But I want to point out that it is not possible to teach people to be a bricklayer just by reading a single article about bricklaying. For people that want to lay bricks, the best thing for them is to observe the bricklayers on the job, this is the quickest way to learn. However, even by observing how it is done, it will take a long time to learn bricklaying, in fact, it takes years to become a bricklayer but don’t be discouraged about that, because this article can help you, you see, you can learn enough to do what you want to do. Now, let me explain.

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Explaining my position and what we write  

Now let me explain, you should keep in mind that this ‘DIY brickwork’ article, is part of my life story, and I am writing this article ‘DIY brickwork’, since I am a bricklayer. I am partly retired now from building, so, I have been thinking that leaving behind my life building knowledge would be a waste; so, I want to share my building knowledge, and for this reason I am writing this article DIY brickwork; where we want to show you how to build with bricks, since we want to tell you how bricklaying is done, I have thought that it would be good to tell you 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, where we share our bricklaying and building knowledge with you; because then I feel that I have contributed in a small way to the community by sharing what I have learned during my life; in the hope that this can help somebody that wants to do some brickwork.

As we know, we are born with the capacity to learn things; so, we believe that most people can do building work themselves, if they are shown how it is done. Therefore, in these articles we will talk about the following activities: (1) How to build with bricks; (2) Building a brick base for houses. (3) Bricklayer laying bricks. (4) Getting ready to lay bricks. (5) Making sure we start the brickwork level; (6) Laying bricks on a sloping site; these are the main items that we are talking about in this article and the following articles. Of course, there is more to say about bricklaying, so, we are continuing with ‘DIY brickwork’ in our next article; Building a brick base, and we will continue to write about brickwork until we complete the brick base at least, even if we must write several articles about brickwork.

 

Building with bricks and other things. 

Dear readers, I believe that it is the duty of any human being to help humanity to improve their standard of living, as we have written in this website www.frankmenchise.com. So, let me pass to my readers some of my hard-learned knowledge, starting with how a bricklayer would build a house brick base.

But because it is hard to visualize some aspect of the bricklaying trade just by describing them, we are going to use some visual links from the internet to show you a few things about bricklaying, so, it is easier to follow, 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 can 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 for houses. 

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For want of a better photo to show a normal house brick base, we are replacing it with this small brick base photo, just to give you the right idea what we are talking about. Anyhow, you can use your imagination to fit it to whatever you want to build. Now allow me to explain it in writing. 

Build a brick base for houses

To learn something, we need to observe how it is done; so, we are going to show you how a house brick base is built. I know that I cannot teach you how to lay bricks from scratch for an entire house base. But let us write, how a bricklayer would build a new house brick base.

Anyhow, as I said I am going to write so many details here, that it is like teaching somebody how to lay bricks, so, I am calling this DIY brickwork. Anyhow, for the following to make sense, we need to go back to our previous article House building in Brisbane, to see 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. 

Now what is going to follow here is how we bricklayers lay these bricks; here I am speaking with the knowledge of a bricklayer, and I may add that what I am writing here can also apply to other brickwork, because bricklaying is a repetitive job and once you have acquired the skills how to do one job, you can easily use this knowledge to do a different job.

So, now that I have explained myself, let me take you step by step how the bricklayers work, when building these brick bases for houses, so that, if you have in mind to do some bricklaying work yourself, you have some ideas of what you need to know. You need this basic knowledge because once you have laid the bricks and the mortar becomes hard it is a very hard and costly to fix it. I have to say also that it is 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, before you even start laying the first brick.

The most important thing is that you start laying the first brick in the right spot, and this should be done at the lowest point of the foundation, otherwise you could encounter real problems later; so, how we bricklayers go about to achieve that you may ask?

Okay, here we should assume that some of our reader may not know anything about bricklaying, so, it is wise if we can describe to you, how a bricklayer lays bricks and then we will proceed to build the house brick base.

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How a bricklayer lays bricks.

Therefore, let us describe briefly how the bricklayer lays bricks, so that those that have never seen it done before, can have some idea how it is done. Let us explain this first, most of us are right handed by nature, but a few of us are left handed; 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 our last article House building in Brisbane, there we were getting everything ready for the bricklayers to lay bricks; so, we had set near the foundations, a 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 longer 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 collects 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

Images for bricklaying

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 must practice how to lay bricks before you start, most people 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, you need to learn about important tools that the bricklayer uses, and we are going to talk about how to use and check the spirit level and make sure that it is okay. 

We also strongly advise that if you really want to do a bricklaying job yourself, you must practice how to lay bricks before you start, most people find that it is harder than it looks and also think about it, practice make perfect. Anyhow, hereunder we are pasting more link again hoping they can help you. 

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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 can 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 for houses. 

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A good quality spirit level in necessary to do a good job, as I have already said, bricks must be laid level and plumb and this is what you can do with a good level, the most used bricklayers level is 1.2 m long

Bricklayers must have a good quality trowel to lay bricks, it is the only way to work efficiently, you see a bricklayer not only lays bricks with his trowel, he sometimes cuts bricks with the trowel, so, it needs to be of good quality. 

All brickwork must be built level and exactly vertical, so the spirit level, is a must have tool for bricklayers. 

Now that we have explained how the bricklayer lays bricks, you need to learn about important tools that the bricklayer uses, and we are going to talk about how to use and check the spirit level and make sure that it is okay. Anyhow, at this point of time, I believe that I have said enough in this blog, so, see you in our next blog, Explaining levels and the spirit level, D.I.Y brickwork part 2 

To see more click on this link, DIY brickwork. 

See you next time, in part 2.

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House building in Brisbane.

WELCOME TO OUR BLOG YOU ARE INVITED , TO BROWSE AS LONG AS YOU LIKE. Anyhow, here I will publish my own diary and what I see happening in the world, and when I do not have much to say, I will write posts from my life story. 

Anyhow, you can also find this article at, http://oldman-lifeworks.blogspot.com,  

My other sites; https://sites.google.com/site/menfrancoreconciliation/  

Farming today compared to the old way, My life my struggles, 

Hub Pages, DIY brickwork. and this article at this link, House building in Brisbane. 

This is how stand alone affordable houses were built in the sixties, they had verandas all around because of the hot climate. This house above is built an a brick base and stumps, it still had all the same fetures of the old timber house on wooden stumps, but it had also some living space under the house. 

Welcome to my article, House building in Brisbane. 

Dear readers, what we are writing in this blog, is about house building in Brisbane in the sixties, today they may be build in a different way, but we stil build them. Anyhow, we must build houses to live in them, so, in this article we are talking about that, because this is what I did when I came to Australia; so, we are talk about house building in Brisbane in the sixties. I know that today building houses can be different from then, but not very much. Anyhow, we are going to talk about house brick bases, and working as a brickies labour.

House building in Brisbane in the sixties, was and is different from the old continent of Europe, because over there most houses are made of masonry, timber over there is more expensive than in Australia, and because of the colder climate. You see, thick walls of masonry absorb the heat during summer and act as storage of this heat by releasing it slowly during the colder months.  Anyhow, houses over there are built mostly from masons’ bricklayer and concreters, and the carpenters play a smaller part than they do in Australia.

Therefore, when we the European migrants came to Australia in the sixties, we thought this is strange to live in timber houses, and we were surprised to see that the carpenter played the role of builders, when houses were being built, because in the sixties most houses were made of timber, we are saying this to compare houses building, between the old continent and Australia in those times. Now we are not saying that this was good or bad practice, since we soon accepted the way of life we found, and we thought there must be a good reason for it.

So, we all did what we had to do in whatever employment we found, and those of us who ended up working in the building industry, we did what we were told to do. But as we know, everything changes with time. As we will see later, when building houses with timber will change even here. Now that we have made this comparison, let us go back to what I was doing myself in helping to build these houses. Therefore, let us talk about how most houses were being built by teams of workers, because that is how we were building houses in Southeast Queensland in the sixties.

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House building in Brisbane in the sixties. 

In the sixties and seventies, most houses building were done from teams of subcontractors, who had their own team of building workers, even if they were only a small team of two or three people, like the team I was working with, which had two tradesman and one labour (myself).  Now let me go over briefly what sort of teams were there; first there were the concreters and bricklayers. When building small houses that did not have a lot to do with these trades, concrete and brickwork could be done from the same team; then there was the carpenter team, then the roof, the electrician and the plumber and the plasters. The work of the builder, which most times was the leading carpenter, because he had the largest job; not only he was building the timber frame of the house, but had to organise all the teams in a way that was appropriate, so that they were not in each other way while they were working, and finally do all the finishing work required.

In those times to be a builder of these standalone houses on an approved block of land was easy, as long as you were a building tradesman and had building knowledge and had the money to build them, you had this opportunity to build one of these houses, of course there were local authority inspections to be had while we were building, but if you knew what you were doing it was easy to pass. So, there were many house builders around that would hire teams of building workers as we were.

I need to say that the building industry in Australia is one of the main driving forces of the economy, since it employs lots of people that are willing to do hard physical work to earn their living, you see you don’t need to be a learned person to work on the building, all you need is common knowledge of things and enough English to understand what is wanted from you, if you know what you are doing; or you work with people that speak your native language and they explain to you what you need to do, but you had to work hard to keep this job.

I believe that in the sixties and seventies there were good opportunities to work on building houses, because the price of the houses was more affordable than they are today. Just looking back at those prices, we can say that one of those cheaper houses would be worth about four time the average wage of a person working full time for a year, so, most people could afford them; therefore, those builders that were building them were able to sell their houses at a decent profit that would enable them to build other houses.

As we know things changes with the passing of time, as we have said, in the beginning houses in Brisbane were mostly made of timber, and they were set on timber stumps, then in the sixties because the timber stumps would rot or they would be attacked by white ants they gave way to concrete stumps, and some brick walls under the house. Then from just a brick wall in front of the house they changed to a full brick base and concrete stumps or steel posts, then came the era of the brick veneer and finally concrete and cavity bricks. Today, I must point out that building apartments is different from the sixties, they are mostly made of reinforced concrete. 

Now that we have said a few things about the history of house building in Brisbane, let us talk about my contribution in the building industry and what I did during the earlier part of working building houses. If I remember right in my last article, I was talking about how we were concreting the stumps for a new house, and we had laid the foundations for brickwork, therefore, let us talk about the brickwork that we had to do, to build a brick base under the house.

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 Brick base under timber houses. 

As we have said, there were many types of houses being built in the sixties, some of them had a brick base, or the front wall under the house built 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 labour, 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 labour 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 labour, 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-labour 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 labour does, and then what the bricklayers have to 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’ labour does.

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What you do, when you are working as a brickies labour.

The brickies labour 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 labour 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 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 amounts 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 mortarboards 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, DIY 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, DIY brickwork 

To see more click on this link, House building in Brisbane. 

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