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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Building a brick veneer house

Dear readers, we are writing these posts, because we want to write some D.I.Y. Brickwork and building posts, so that you can learn something about how to built something yourself, at least in

theory. But in this blog we are also trying to get you interested to become a tradesman. So, keep reading please. 

You are here, http://oldman-lifeworks.blogspot.com, 

My other sites; http://frankmenchise.com,http://diybrickwork.com,http://manneedsgod.co.uk  

Anyhow, you can see our entire articles at this addresses, DIY brickwork  

 and,  http://diybrickwork.com, 

Most houses that we built in seventies looked like this house, and most of them were brick veneer houses. So, in this post we are explaining how we did it.  

Welcome to our article, Building a veneer house 

Building a brick-veneer house

Dear readers, this article cannot be a D.I.Y article, since what we are describing here is more advanced. However, it is the continuation of our article, Completing the house brick base, since we do not want to describe that part again, and a few types of houses, can be built on those type of brick-bases. So, let be describe how we built them.

Anyhow, the following descriptions is how we were building houses during the seventies here in Australia. We must say here, that most houses were built using plain common sense, of course, we are still building them today in the same way, and they will be built for a long time, in some part of the world, where blocks of land are subdivided to build standalone houses, but today even this way of building is becoming old fashion, especially if you are building in a city, where building anything is becoming very specialized, so, if you build anything that needs approval from the local authorities you need a builder an architect and an engineer, or at least you must be a good tradesman  and know how to read their plans, then you might be able to build a small house, by yourself. 

Anyhow, this article is for those people that want to know what sort of problems they may encounter, while building a brick-veneer house or even a solid cavity brick house, and how to avoid these building problems, in other words this article can help the owner-builder that wants to know a bit more, because he is going to build his own house.  

So, now that we have built this imaginary brick base in the previous article, House brick base continues, we have the option of using this same style of brick base in a few ways, because this base can be used to build a timber house on the top of it, or it can be used to build a brick veneer house as well, what this means is that we can build brick around the timber frame of the house, so that the house looks like a brick house, but in reality it is both, so, let us see what is the difference and if it affects anything.

Of course, we must start building the house knowing what it is going to be from the start, and this is the reason why we need a plan, you see, we need a plan because we need to know the measurement from the start, because anything we change, changes the measurement, but anyhow the ways of building it is almost the same, accept that the bricks take more space than if the house outside is finished with timber cladding, therefore, this affect the remaining floor space in the house, but apart from that there is no much difference in building the brick base.

Now, there are at least three types of houses being built these days, the timber house, the brick veneer house and the solid brick house. These types of houses can vary as it is possible to mix all these materials together in various amounts. But in this article, we want to write first about a brick veneer house that can be built on a similar brick base that we have completed in the previous post, House brick base continues. So, let us describe, how this is done. 

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Building a brick veneer 

As we have said, the difference in the construction of the base between a timber house and a brick veneer house is not that much, as it affects only the outside of the house and the floor space of the house, if the extra space needed for the bricks is not taken into account at the start. But how we proceed to build these two types of building on a similar brick base is this: If the outside of the house is going to be timber, the outside of the timber bears and the entire timber frame is placed right at the outside edge of the brickwork, but before we do that on top of the brick walls a galvanized ants capping will be fixed, then the timber bears and the house frame. But if it is going to be brick veneer then the reverse happens and the timber bears and frame is set back about 6 inches (150 mm) this is to give space for the bricks and leave a cavity between the timber frame and the bricks, the ants capping goes inside or at least under the timber bears.         

Now because we are building a brick veneer house, the carpenters have placed the house frame back to allow for the bricks to be laid outside, in this case the carpenter’s foreman should have instructed his carpenter team to try to work with the bricklayers and set the opening of doors and windows in such a way that helps the bricklayers. Now, let me explain here what are the problems that the bricklayer can encounter if both teams don’t work together. For example, there is a short wall that has a door opening in the center, if the door opening is placed exactly in the center, then the bricklayers might have to cut the bricks on both sides of the door to make them fit the length of the remaining wall beside the door opening, this not only will add extra work for the bricklayer, but it can be an eye sore, and therefore, these sort of things should be avoided, wherever they can be avoided. 

So, what can be done one may ask? Well, the door opening can be moved a bit to one side, so that at least one side works to the bricklayer advantage, and if he is lucky both sides can work with a full brick, therefore, no bricks need to be cut shorter to fit in the wall between the door and the corners? This same principle applies in other parts of the brick wall, when there are two openings, the carpenter should move the openings of the windows and door to help the bricklayers, when they can be moved.

The bricklayer working part 

Now that we have explained what the variations for the carpenter are, when he sets up the timber frame for the brick veneer, we come to the bricklayer part and what he does when he works on a brick veneer house, because there are many other demanding things to do in between while he is laying bricks; these other things need to be done as well, if the house is going to be well built.   

Apart laying bricks as usual, the fist other job that the bricklayer may encounter is that he has to place lintels over the opening of doors and windows of the brick base, if they happen to be at that level and most time they are, these lintels for brickwork can be steel angles that span over the openings, they come in various size and they are used according to the span they have to bridge. So, when there are openings in the base, the bricklayer places this steel angle over the openings and then lays the bricks over them making sure that everything looks and is okay, he has also to lay some brick reinforcement in next course of bricks above the openings, or even all around the brick base, this reinforcement is in the form of a light galvanized mesh as we have explained in our previous articles.

But this is not all, because in some cases when it is specified he may have to nail the rat-proof wire (this is a wire mesh with holes too small for a rat to go through), so, the bricklayer first of all nails one side to the timber frame and the other side is laid in the joint of the bricks, thus a barrier is formed and no rat can enter into the cavity between the bricks and the timber frame. But that is not all, because there can be the need to lay a damp-course, this again is like the rat-proof wire, one end is nailed to the timber frame and the other end is laid in the brick joints. 

At least this is how it was done when we were building brick veneer houses or apartments in the sixties and seventies; so, we had this problem there to solve while we were laying bricks, I guess that at this point of time one can even ask, but if the bricklayer has to do all these extra small jobs, how and when he is going to lay bricks? These jobs should really be done from somebody else and let the bricklayer do his job and lay his bricks. Having said that we have to agree that those small jobs should be done from a different person, but there is a problem there also; those jobs need to be done when the wall reaches a certain height, so, it is very hard to have somebody there that would do that job for us bricklayers. So, we were forced to do it ourselves whether at the end we were compensated or not. You see, this is one of the main reasons why when we work on a brick veneer the bricklayer lays a lot less bricks per day than he usually does on a normal wall. 

Other things that the bricklayer does

We have mentioned many things but there is more to say here, sometimes before we even start to lay bricks in the veneer part of the house, we bricklayers need to nail a special building paper, this paper is another layer of insulating material that is nailed on the outside of the timber studs that form the external timber frame; in reality it is the carpenters that should do this work, and if they are around, once we have built the scaffolding to lay our bricks, the carpenters are very likely to jump in and nail this insulation paper for us, but it is likely that the bricklayers have to do it themselves.

Other things that we need to do while laying bricks on the brick veneer, we need to nail to the timber studs brick veneer ties every three or four courses of bricks; These are L shaped brackets that attach the timber frame to the brick wall, we have to lay this wire reinforcement every so often, we have to nail the damp course under and above openings and other things that need to be done before we lay bricks.

Once we finish building our veneer walls, most likely the last job is to lay these bricks for the windowsills. The windowsills take a lot of time and patience, usually we need to cut every brick in a special way and then lay them making sure that the joints are all even; in order to achieve that we use a gauge rod. Sometimes we are lucky and the same gauge rod that we have used to build the entire house works for some windowsills; if it does not, then we have to work it out how to make this windowsill, we can make smaller joints or larger joints, as long as the outcome looks acceptable.

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The cavity brick house

The difference between the brick veneer and the cavity brick house is this: the brick veneer house all the walls are made of timber, and the timber frame is just like the complete timber house with the exception that the outside is veneered with bricks, so that the building looks as if it is made of bricks, but in reality, the timber walls are the load bearing walls and they can stand on their own, if you cover them with something else other than bricks. But the cavity bricks is different, all the outside walls in the cavity bricks are made of bricks or blocks, at least the external walls are made of two brick-walls one beside the other with a cavity between them, these two external walls are tied together with cavity ties, in a way it is very much like the brick veneer where the timber external walls are tied together with ties to the veneer brick wall.

For the bricklayers the cavity brick house is easier to build, because he can set everything to suite his face brick walls, so, this is an advantage for him. But in this case if there is no builder of foreman around the bricklayer needs to work out where the opening of doors and windows are and put them in place; this needs to be done because the door frames and the window frames need to be tied permanently to the brickwork while the work is in progress. So, we must admit that this is not for the beginners, as it takes a good tradesman to do that.

There are a lot of other things that need to be done, some of them are just like what we have described for the brick veneer, but one thing in particular is different here; because the brick walls are load bearing walls and whatever goes above them need to be tied the wall, the bricklayers has to make sure that there are ties that are able to tie down the roof of the house permanently; this could be achieved by steel rods that start from the concrete floor or from the foundations. In some cases where there are not enough steel rods from the concrete below, the bricklayer can add some special made brackets several courses of bricks below the top, this is also good, but not as good as the steel rods that start from the foundations.

I believe that I have covered the most important things in building this imaginary house, so I hope that this article can help someone that is building his own house. 

I must also say that, in this blog I cannot paste photos that I have pasted in my original Hub Pages article. So, to see what was in this article you need to click on this link. Building a veneer house, 

I believe that I have written most thing that can be easily written in D.I.Y brickwork. So, in our next post, we will start talking about, D.I.Y Retaining walls.

See you soon. 

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This blog-site is; old man-lifeworks

This blog is, Building a brick veneer house  

IS TO BE CONTINUED WITH

D.I.Y Retaining walls    

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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. 

http://diybrickwork.com  

 http://manneedsgod.co.uk

http://frankmenchise.com

https://sites.google.com/site/menfrancoreconciliation/

https://sites.google.com/site/prayersofreconciliation/

https://sites.google.com/site/godintheuniverse/

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Learning a trade can help you

Dear readers, we are writing these posts, because we want to write some D.I.Y. Brickwork and building posts, so that you can learn something about how to built something yourself, at least in

theory. But in this blog we are also trying to get you interested to become a tradesman. So, keep reading please. 

You are here, http://oldman-lifeworks.blogspot.com, 

My other sites; http://frankmenchise.com,http://diybrickwork.com,http://manneedsgod.co.uk  

Anyhow, you can see our entire articles at this addresses, DIY brickwork  

 and,  http://diybrickwork.com, 

Welcome to our blog, learning a trade can help. You see it helped me. So, it can help you also to achieve a higher standard of living.  

Dear readers, I believe that most people must work to earn their living, unless you are born lucky and your families are rich enough, that you can live on their properties earnings; or you are have studied and have university degrees and a good job. But if you are not one of them, then  the best other thing to do is to learn a trade. To learn a building trade takes a few years, but it is worth having a qualification, in the building industry, there are several qualifications to choose from, but because here we are talking about brickwork, we invite young people to become bricklayers. Now that I have said that, let me take you through how I learned my trade. To do that, I am going to start from when I was a building labor, because a building labor is already a Semi-qualified tradesman. 

Anyhow, when I came to Australia in the sixties I ended up working in the building industry, we were extending or fixing old houses, or building new houses from scratch, I started as a bricklayer labor, and after a few years I became a bricklayer, and have worked most of my life as a bricklayer. 

But let me start to show you some types of brickwork, because today we are writing this extra article to talk about the various ways we lay bricks, because we want to show that we are serious to talk about how to lay bricks. because we want to help people know how to lay bricks. But by reading and studying this D.I.Y brickwork blog only, you cannot become a bricklayer, to become a bricklayer, it takes a few years of practice, but you can do a small job yourself, and if you like it then you can continue and by practicing it for a long time, you become a bricklayer yourself. 

Anyhow, let me show you a few photos, of different bonds, of how the bricks can be laid.   

Now, let me show you some photos of bricklayers, while they are working on a wall.  

Above is a bricklayer working on a wall and laying the bricks in stretcher bond. Note all the joints in the brickwork are even, note also the set up of the compo-board and the stack of bricks, well withing the bricklayers reach. 

This bricklayer here is building an arch in his wall. To build an arch is not as hard as it seems, if you have an arch form template, but you need to mark all the space of the bricks on the template, so that the closer brick on the top fits well. The hardest part in the case of a face-brick wall, is to cut the brick around the arch to make an even joint.  

This bricklayer here, is laying this type of old bricks with their frogs up. Well that is the way they tell you it is done, but most bricklayers find it harder to lay bricks frogs up, to they lay them frogs down. Really in the end there is no much difference, except it is harder to do. You can lay them whichever way you like. 

This bricklayer here has built his corner in stretcher bond on concrete floor, this is an easy corner to built, since the concrete floor is level. Now he needs to build the other corner and use his bricklayer string line to lay the bricks in between. 

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There is a lot more to learn, and you can use these links hereunder to learn a few things.  

The Art of Laying Brick - YouTube

Images for bricklaying 

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Now that I have done that, let me go back to tell you that Learning a trade can help, by starting to tell you the way that I have started myself. 

Dear readers, I believe that the knowledge you have acquired during your life must be used in full. So, today that I cannot use my knowledge much, because I am getting old and my physical strength does not allow me to use it enough, I have thought to write and publish my know-how D.I.Y brickwork site, hoping it can help somebody that reads my blogs. 

But before I can do that, I must write many blogs. It will be like telling you, how I learned bricklaying myself during my life, and I will be telling you how many things are done on the building sites. 

So, first of all, I need to explain to our readers, how I did acquirer this building knowledge that I am going to use to write this D.I.Y. brickwork blog, and hopefully teach them something useful. You see, knowledge is not easy to pass to other people, but I am going to try anyhow.  

Now let me tell you who I am and where I come from; I am an Italian Australian bloke that has worked most of my life building or fixing house building. I am known in Australia as Frank Menchise, even if in this blog my name has changed, because on the internet one is forced to use a different name for safety reasons.

Now that I have told you that, I can tell you how I learned building things. Anyhow, in Italy when I was young, I worked mostly in the farm and a little in building things for the farm, it was not much but enough to know what you need to know to build something.

When I came to Australia I was ready to do any work to earn money, because in the sixties there were a lot of standalone new house being built in Brisbane, I ended up to work with a small builder that built, or partly built these houses. I worked first as a building labor, because this is what these people needed; they needed a strong bloke to do hard physical work and help them build these houses. In the early sixties on small building most things were done by hand, even foundations were dug by hand, so, I was the right bloke to do this job.

Anyhow, for a few years I worked as a building labor, with a few small builders and bricklayers’ gangs. One day the boss was looking for more bricklayers, but he could not find them, so, he asked me if I wanted to be a bricklayer, since he knew that I would work  hard to succeed. He tried me out and found that I could earn my wage if I worked with other brick layers that new more than me. Anyhow, I worked with them for a few years and became as good as any of them. This is how I became A bricklayer.

Anyhow, this is more or less my life story, but I need to tell you this, because when I was working as a bricklayer labor, I was observing how the bricklayer worked, and when I had time, I tried to lay some bricks instead of taking it easy, the boss gave me this chance, because I was trying to learn. So, if you do the right things, one day you may be recompensed and that is what I wanted. 

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Now, let us talk about the Australian building industry, I believe that the Australian building industry  is one of the major employment industries in Australia. It was so in the sixties and even today is much the same. Because Australia is a new country, and it needs more people. Because the population grows steadily also accommodations need to grow steadily, therefore, new houses need to be built to keep a steady balance. So, a lot of people are needed to build these houses. The only problem that you can encounter working with builders, is that your job is a temporary job. When one job is finished, you do not know, if your employer has been able to secure another job to keep you employed.

But then to find another job is easy, so, it works both ways, even though you can be concerned about having this job.

Anyhow, it is a job with good opportunities, because you can learn and improve your building knowledge and built something yourself. So, in those times, if you were a tradesman, most likely you could be the builder as well.

But now let me talk about what I was doing in the early sixties, as a builder labor, so that you can understand how these houses were built. With this builder contractor that I was working with, we did many things, and we also started houses from scratch, when there was some brickwork, concrete work and concrete stumps to make, in those times concrete stumps were made on site, so, let me tell you what we did.

We went to the site and set it up if it was not set up from the builder or carpenter that was building the timber house on top. This setting up required that we should fix some timber frame to the ground with pegs and per the measurement in the plan. These timber frames are called profiles, and they are marked accurately to the measurement on the plan, so that we had the right measurement to go by, to start digging the foundations for the concrete stumps and brick walls. 

How the profiles are set on a near level site. Anyhow, what you need here are a few length of timber fixed to the ground, where you can mark where the walls and the stumps are going to be, then you can use a stretched bricklayers line between the profiles. When laying bricks we could also use the profile to mark our levels.  

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Anyhow, here I want to say that, while I was working, I was also learning how these things were done; and those houses that we were building in the sixties, they were average affordable house that the average family could afford to buy, and therefore, they were sold easily.

Anyhow, there is a lot more to be said, how we built these houses. But let us go back to our previous blog, where we had built our imaginary house brick base, and link it to our next blog, building a veneer house.

See you soon.

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This blog-site is; old man-lifeworks

Blog, Learning a trade can help you  

IS TO BE CONTINUED WITH

Building a veneer house    

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. 

http://diybrickwork.com  

 http://manneedsgod.co.uk

http://frankmenchise.com

https://sites.google.com/site/menfrancoreconciliation/

https://sites.google.com/site/prayersofreconciliation/

https://sites.google.com/site/godintheuniverse/

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