Hit 50,000 bricks laid in three years and realized my old foreman was right about something I ignored

Everyone talks about speed but nobody mentions that 50,000 bricks in means you have probably also wasted 5,000 bricks on bad cuts and sloppy buttering, so take that milestone with a grain of salt I guess - has anyone else hit a big number and felt like they had to re-learn the basics?

2 comments

2 Comments

jana11912d ago

Ask you this - how many of those wasted bricks came from trying to fix old man's methods against your own? I bet half your bad cuts happened when you rushed through his setup steps just to get to the fast part. My first foreman drilled me on buttering technique for months before he let me lay a single brick and I still catch myself skipping the wrist flick that makes it stick right.

the_thomas12d ago

Buddy of mine from the local union spent his first year just hauling mud and watching his oldtimer butter bricks. He told me the guy made him stand there for a whole week just flicking a trowel full of mud into a bucket until the motion was muscle memory. It's boring stuff but the second you skip it on a real job you end up with a brick that doesn't grab and a whole row you gotta pull apart.