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Welcome to our blog, Menfranco general blog
and this post, Bricklayers' profile
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Bricklayer's profiles
Dear readers, this post is the continuation of our
post, Brick base continues; therefore you may have to read that post again, if
you don’t remember what we said, but let me continue. Now
that all the corners have been started, the bricklayers may choose to use bricklayers’
profiles, since this method is a bit quicker and also accurate, and then as we
all know time is money so anything that can be done fast is an advantage. You
see by using the profiles, it almost eliminate the slow process of building the
corners by using the spirit level many times, it also helps to keep the gauge
easily, since the gauge would be marked on the profile. I have always had a
profile with me when I was laying bricks. Some of these profiles can be bought,
but if there are not readily available on the market, and there is a lot of
brickwork that needs to be done, by using your own creativeness or imagination
you can make one yourself, all that is needed is a straight edge marked with
the gauge that you can fasten to the walls.
There
are at least two types of profile that the bricklayers can use to help speed up
his work, the main one is used for external corners. This external corner
profile needs to be supported both ways to be effective, so if you haven’t got
one and you cannot buy one, you need to configure a device that can be tighten
both ways, when you are making your own profile. You have to plan it in such a
way that you can grab a brick from the joint on one side and two bricks on the
other side, so that a sort of triangle is made and balance can be kept.
The
internal corner profile can be a lot easier to make, and here I wonder why
people don’t seem to use it much since it is very easy to make, or is it perhaps
that I have found a way how to make and use an internal corner profile; I am
saying this because sometimes I see people to leave a brick out and use a clamp
to fix it to the wall, but really they don’t need to do that, as I am going to
describe to you a very easy way.
You
see, all what is needed here is a straight edge with a hole or a few holes
drilled in it and a special made up bolt or two that are thinner than the
brick’s joint; these special bolts need to be modified and instead of their
normal bolt head they should have a short cross say 30 to 40 mm welded at one
end, and at the other end treaded with a butterfly nut. All the bricklayer
needs to do now is to leave a hole in the bed joint near the corner, or clear
the joint with a plugging chisel, then he puts one of his bolts in the hole of
his straight edge; now he can push the bolt in the joint until the modified
bolt T head reaches the other side of the brick, then he turns the bolt 90
degrees, so that the modified bolt head is now vertical, and then he can
tighten the bolt with his butterfly nut and at the same time make sure that the
profile is plumb and he can use this profile instead of building the corner
with his spirit level.
Perhaps
the only thing that needs to be added to this special modified bolt is a way to
tell how the T head at the other side is standing, vertical or horizontal etc.
If that is done then you have a very cheap and easy brick profile that you can
use. I wonder if I need to say here that to remove the profile you loosed the
butterfly nut and turn the bolt around until the T head is horizontal and can
be pulled out of the brick joint easily.
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To complete brick base
What else needs to be done to complete the brick base?
Let us
now assume that because the ground is sloping the base of this house has been
divided in such a way that the lower end can be used for garage laundry and
utility room, in order to achieve that they have dug up the ground level about
half way the length of the house, and then dug a foundation to support a
retaining wall and also pillars to support the house above, the rest of ground
under the house will be left the way it is for the time being, as it would
become too costly to dig it out.
Anyhow
let us try to complete this brick base, as we have said above the lower side is
now about a certain height perhaps the windows openings should be started. The
windows are going to be tied to the brickwork, so they need to be put in the
right place and braced while the walls are being built. The bricklayers need to
be careful that the windows remain plumb and in the right place while he
attaches the window ties to the window and builds the tie into the brickwork.
Here I may have to point out that placing the windows on the walls at the right
height and at the right place, it’s one of those jobs that in this part of the
world there is no rule who has to do it, say if the bricklayer is paid a fixed
price for the amount of bricks he has laid, when he is placing and fixing the
window on the wall he might not be paid, therefore, nobody seems willing to do
it as there is no set rule and usually not much money for doing it, therefore
everybody would like to pass the buck to the builder or other trade people if
possible.
Having
said that, now let us assume that everything has been done according to trading
practice and the windows have been built into the brickwork accordingly. But
here I would like to point out that we have not talked about the lower part of
the brick base that is being built on the higher part of the land, so, what
needs to be done there?
The
lower part of the brick base is built together with the rest of the base, but
because it is lower it might be just one single brick thick with engaged piers
under the house. These engaged piers may have a double purpose, one is just to
strengthen the walls and second they may be used to carry the weight of the house
if this part of the house is going to be a brick veneer. In this part of the
house because there are no windows the bricklayer needs to leave some air
vents, so that a minimum of ventilation is achieved. All this is going to be
done according to specifications, as there must be some local rules and they
may not be the same everywhere.
What we
have written in this post is approximately what happens when we bricklayers
build a brick base on a sopping peace of ground, so I hope that I have not left
behind any important description that would have helped the readers. And at the
same time I hope that these descriptions may help somebody that is looking for
something like this to give him just that extra knowledge to start his own
bricklaying, whether it is just a simple bricklaying job or a brick base it
does not matter, as long as we have been able to help you with our bricklaying
description, we would feel that it has been worth the time we spent in writing
it.
Now
that we have built our imaginary house brick base, we believe that we have said
enough in this article. So, see you soon with another post about brickwork,
perhaps we will be talking about a brick veneer on the house base that we have
just built.
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This is:
Menfranco general blog
Bricklayers' profiles
IS TO BE CONTINUED;
Next time with, another building post
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Some personal and religious links:
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