Old bricklayer told me my joints were too fat

A guy with 40 years on the job watched me lay a wall and said I was going through too much mortar. He showed me how to cut my joint width down from 3/8 to just a hair over 1/4 inch and now I save about a bag of mortar per 100 bricks. Has anyone else had to unlearn a habit that was wasting material?

2 comments

2 Comments

chen.james21d ago

Picked up the same lesson framing doors actually. Old timer carpenter I worked with early on showed me I was leaving too wide a gap around the door jambs. I was using a fat shim and filling it with foam like I was trying to insulate a freezer. He had me switch to thinner shims and tighter gaps. Cut my foam waste by more than half and the doors fit better too. Hard to shake habits you learn on your own but sometimes the old guys just know better.

fiona73721d ago

Honestly, that's a good tip about the thinner shims. But I gotta gently push back on one thing - you mentioned "cut my foam waste by more than half" and honestly, that foam is kinda overkill anyway if the gap is that tight. Ngl, if you're using foam at all on a tight jamb, you're probably better off just using a backer rod and a tiny bead of caulk instead. Tbh, the old timer was right about the gap but the foam might still be more than you need for a door that's shimmed right. Just my two cents from fighting with drafty doors in my own place.