Was dead set against those fancy levelling systems for brickwork, but I gave in on a big retaining wall job and now I get it

I've been laying brick for almost 15 years and always laughed at guys using those plastic clip levelling systems. Figured a good line and a level was all you needed. Last month I had to do a 40-foot long retaining wall in Austin with some really uneven old bricks the homeowner insisted on reusing. After fighting with it for two days and having to pull three rows because they were off by a quarter inch, I borrowed a buddy's system with the wedges and spacers. That wall came out dead flat and I finished the whole thing in half the time. Has anyone else here caved and tried one of those on a rough material job?

2 comments

2 Comments

torres.elizabeth1mo ago

Those old reused bricks sound like a nightmare. 40 feet is a long stretch to keep straight by eye too. What was it about those uneven bricks specifically that made the system work better for you? Was it the difference in height between bricks, or more that the clips helped keep the face plane flat when the bricks themselves were warped?

jesse_west1mo ago

Funny enough, I had a buddy who did a similar project with old salvaged brick and he swore by the clips. He said the real issue wasn't the height difference between bricks but the fact that some were warped like a potato chip, and the clips kept the whole face pulling together flat. @torres.elizabeth, he claimed it saved him from ripping out a whole section that would've looked like a roller coaster otherwise.