-
Welcome to our blog, Menfranco general blog
and this post, Brick base continues
-
Brick base
continues
In our
previous posts we have promised our readers that we are going to explain step
by step how to build a brick base, so that any D I Y people that would like to
try and build themselves their own brick base, or anything built with bricks
can have an idea what they should do to built it right the first time around.
So far in our last post we have started to describe how to build a brick base
on a sloping building site, in this post we will continue to describe how to
complete this house brick base.
Now in
our last post we had reached the stage where the bricklayers had set and built
the southern wall high enough to lay some brick reinforcement and the damp
course in this lower part of the house base, now just to keep our descriptions
as simple as possible and as accurate as possible, we have to assume that they
are going to leave an opening for a door, and then continue to build this wall
as high as the first brick on the concrete foundation at the highest corner to
start with, they want to do that, so that they can check and make sure that all
the walls are level and there is no mistake, and therefore no pig in their
brickwork, once that has been done it starts to be a bit easier for everyone to
work on this brick base, since the whole house dimensions have been set and everything
is level.
For
this reason the bricklayers continue to check and recheck everything before
they lay more bricks, because this is when a mistake can be picked up easily,
they are also checking that everything is at the right alignment and also that
they have laid the brick walls level, so, they keep checking this from the
lines that they have set above with their level and the gauge rod, or any other
way that they usually use; this making sure that everything is set right is
very important to do, specially on a sloping site and stepped foundations,
since the foundations may not be exactly level, because of the extra difficulty
that the concreter can encounter when laying the foundations, and also that an
exact gauge rod has not been made yet for that particular job, therefore the
concreters are guessing the possible gauge.
Now let
me make it clear, when building every tradesman should rely only on themselves
and their skills, they should always make sure that what they are doing is the
right thing to do, they cannot blame somebody else for their own mistakes,
therefore, when they find a mistake from the previous tradesman, whether they
are concreters or other trades, whenever possible they should try to fix
whatever there is to fix if they can fix it themselves, when that cannot be
done, their foreman could recall the previous tradesman to fix their mistakes
before they go ahead and make the first mistake bigger and more costly to fix
later on.
That is
why the bricklayer cannot trust blindly the concreters and they have to rely on
themselves. Anyhow the bricklayer that are building this base are doing the
right thing, so they has succeeded in building for a start the lower part of
the brick base level and they have made the first full course of bricks all
around the house base. Now they can relax a bit, as everything is in the right
place at the right level and there is no pig in the brickwork, as the last
course of bricks makes a full circle of the house and ends up level, so there
is no pig in the brickwork, so let us explain what is meant by a pig in the
brickwork.
------------------------------
Pig in the brickwork
Let me
explain how a pig in the brickwork can happen.
Okay we
have been talking about a pig in the brick work; now, let me try to explain how
it can happen sometimes, and how you can create a pig in the brickwork easily,
if the bricklayers are not very careful when starting the walls. This can
happen easily on a sloping site like the sloping site we are supposedly be
working on now, you see, it could happen when the brick-walls are not exactly
level.
Therefore,
let us go back to build our brick base, and let us assume that the bricklayer
that is setting the wall on the eastern side is having some difficulty in
setting the wall exactly level, because the concreter made a mistake and the
concrete foundation is not level, so the bricklayer believe that he can get it
level soon enough by making the bed joint thicker before the walls are higher
than the ground; therefore he lets his northern corner be a couple of
centimetre lower than his southern corner on the same course of bricks, you see
this is a long wall and if you only use the spirit level, you can hardly see
that it is not level, but with the proper level or water level it soon shows
the difference.
At the
same time the bricklayer that is setting the western wall is having some
difficulties too and for the same reason is starting his wall and letting his
northern corner be a couple of centimetre higher that his southern corner on
the same course of bricks, he also believes that he can set everything right by
making very small joint before ground level is reached.
Now, I
suppose that you have already worked out that there is a difference of four
centimetres at the northern wall, this will give anyone a headache to say the
least, and also the problem of what to do to set it right again; you see four
centimetres is more than half a brick, and therefore one can easily tie the
line on the wrong course; this is how a pig in the brickwork is created easily,
if you tie the line on the wrong course of bricks a pig in the brickwork is
created. In order to make one hundred per cent sure that there is no pig in it,
the bricklayer needs to make sure that the walls are started level from the
start, and then run a full course all around the building and make sure
everything ends up level, this is the only way, so it is better to spend extra
time at the start and get it perfectly level the first time around. I hope I
have explained it properly and clearly. And now let us go back to talk about
how to complete the brick base.
-------------------------------------
Building the rest of the brick-base
Let us
assume that everything has been set properly and there is no pig in the
brickwork, so all the brickwork around is level and at the right alignment we
believe. But anyhow just to make sure, we double check everything again by
running a type measure and seeing that it agrees with the plans measurement,
this now is a very simple job, because everything is set in hard cement and
everything is level, so if there is any mistake in the measurements it will
show up easily.
Having
checked everything and found that everything is right, we can now proceed to
complete the brick base. But let us go over once again how far we have built
the base and what else we have done, so that our readers can keep the whole
brick base picture in their minds; we have built the lower part of the base one
brick higher than the highest corner of the concrete foundations; in this case
because it is sloping site the lower part is about half way the finished
height, so what would be the best way to proceed now?
Since
the whole base has been set, perhaps the best way is to build the northern
wall, which at the moment is the lowest wall, we want to build it at least to
above ground level, so that the trances can be back filled and then it would
become easier for everybody to walk around the building site, this is an easier
job now since everything is in the right place at the right level. So from now
on everything is going to move a bit faster, and soon this wall is built above
ground level. Having built the northern wall above ground level, now we have to
choose which wall to build next. But at the same time let us see what the
bricklayer can use to speed up the brickwork, like the bricklayer’s profiles,
these are devises that can be attached to the brick walls that is being built
and they help the bricklayers, because they can speed up the job. So what are
the bricklayer profiles? Anyhow this
post is becoming too long, so we will talk about the bricklayer’s profile in
our next post
---------------------------------------------
This is:
This is:
Menfranco general blog
Brick base continues
IS TO BE CONTINUED;
Next time with, another building post
-------------------------------------
Some personal and religious links:
Some personal and religious links:
No comments:
Post a Comment