Bricklaying is
competitive
(From; How to be competitive)
Building workers
need to be competitive;
blocks
laying blocks
It is a well-known fact that whatever we do we would like to do
it better and faster, we have this inborn need to excel in whatever we do; and
those that don’t fall in this category and therefore don’t care to do better
usually they become losers, so we are forced to act one way or another. For
these reasons we always try to challenge ourselves; we have to do that in order
to be successful in life.
This need to do things better and faster also applies to the
building industry, because the building industry needs to be competitive,
perhaps to a higher degree than other industries, therefore it is very
important that we would be able to build better and cheaper houses, because
that is the only way that the buyers would be able to afford to buy their
houses or apartments, and then, we the builders could build another one to sell
again.
We all know in whatever
activities we are able to perform that we would like to do that better and
faster, so that we can beat our competitors; so all the trade people that work
in the building are constantly looking for ways to improve their output; you
see a tradesman needs to perform well, if he is going to be employed from a
builder or contractor, because he needs to perform well to earn his wage and a
bit more for his employer. So, if you are a bricklayer you must be able of
laying a certain number of bricks or blocks per day before you would be
employable, of course this can vary greatly depending on the job that needs to
be done.
Now, in some of our previous building articles we have talked
about brickwork, we have started with, DIY brickwork DIY brickwork, then we have written Building a brick base, and then House brick base continues, so, we have talked about a
fair bit how to lay bricks in these three articles, anyhow these three articles
were written to show some do it yourself people how to go about building this
brick base, of course we have also pointed out how to lay more bricks by using
bricklayers’ profiles and other things, but the aim was mostly for people that
were not real tradesmen.
For the block
layer tradesman
Now, this article here we are aiming it to the block layer
tradesmen, because we would like the block layer tradesmen to challenge
themselves and see if what we are claiming here could be done more than just a
few times; of course we are going to show you how you could lay more besser
blocks in one day that you did before, but you need to follow some rules that
we have found helpful. In this example we are going to make it easy and we are
going to talk only about straight forward work, otherwise it is going to be
very hard to achieve and also to explain or measure what we want to do.
As we all know, for the bricklayer to lay blocks is even harder
than laying bricks, because the blocks are heavy, each block needs to be lifted
with both hands and carefully placed softly on the mortar bed that the block
layer has laid, so it is hard to lay many blocks in one day, but there are ways
to make it a bit easier and a block layer could be able to lay up to 250 in one
day, when the job is easy enough to do; so let us see how that could be done.
Now it is necessary to explain to the public what happens in the
building industry and how many bricks or blocks a tradesman is supposed to lay
in one day. In the building industry the best tradesman would exaggerate a bit
their capacity of laying so many bricks or blocks per day, so, we go around
boasting that we are able to lay 1000 common bricks, or over 500 face bricks,
or 200 eight inches besser blocks in a single day. Here we need to say that
perhaps we have done it once or twice, and we want to boast about it; but
really that is hard to achieve, anyhow if you have been able of laying down
that many bricks or block even one time in your life, you are a very good
tradesman. Now the reality is that on average, when we work on houses or small
building at the end of a job the figure could be half of that we are boasting.
Now that we have explained that let us see how we could do even better.
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Laying 250
besser blocks in one day:
Now, let us forget about the average number or bricks or blocks
that can be laid in one day just for a moment and let us concentrate on what we
have said above where we were able to lay 200 besser block in one day and that
is very hard even for a good tradesman, so, since we claim that we are going to
be able to lay 250 eight inches blocks in one day needs to be explained very
carefully and that is what we are going to do just now here under:
In order for a block layer to be able of laying 250 blocks in
one day, everything and every movement should be planed, so that there is no
waste of time and energies. So how could we achieve those 250 numbers of blocks
to be laid is explained here under.
First of all it should be a straight forward job, let us say the
walls are long and you are on a level platform, let us assume that we are
working on a concrete slab, so the place is level and there is plenty of room
to move around, the walls have been marked where they should be, so all you
have to do is to lay these block. Now to do this job efficiently it required
team work, so if you are the block layer instruct your labour how you want to
set up your mortar board and the blocks that you have to lay.
Ideally you want the mortar boards to be set off the ground, so
the labour should put a couple of blocks on the slab and set the mortar board
on them, they need to be set at least two feet from the wall and about 6 to 8
feet apart, you see here you want to give more room to the labour for the
blocks; then instruct you labour that when he brings the blocks he should set
the blocks between the mortar boards standing up, so that you don’t have to
handle the blocks many times, now these are how it is set up for the labour;
but what’s about you the block layer; what do you need to do to be able to lay
those 250 blocks.
--------------------------------
The block layer
procedure
The block layer first of all lays one block in each corner; and
then he stretches his bricklayer line between these two blobs and lays the
first course of blocks as usual making sure that all blocks are straight and
have an even vertical joint, if everything is done the correct way, because the
blocks have been made to cover 400 mm each in the wall, but their true length
is 390 mm, if you measure the wall it should be an even number divisible by 100
mm and minus 10 mm. So if a wall is 10 metre long and you follow this rule
strictly, you will end up with a wall 9.990 meters long, of course this could
easily be adjusted from the block layer by making a few joints bigger or
smaller as required.
The reason that we have written about this length is that we
want to point out to some people that want to lay blocks themselves how to work
with blocks, so let us explain it in another way: when we work with blocks it
is a lot easier for us to follow the gauge, because they have been made to
cover an even number when laid, so, a 200 series block is 390 mm long 190 mm
wide and 190 mm high, but when laid in the wall because we have to add the
mortar joint it covers 400 mm in length and 200 mm high, so this is the gauge
that needs to be kept, of course sometimes the length in the building do not
work with the length of the blocks and this may cause a few problems; but
whatever problems there might be, it is advisable that you don’t try too hard
to adjust it by making the joints too big or too small; you can try to make the
bed and vertical joint smaller if possible and it is still going to be a good
job done, but if you try to make them bigger it becomes unsightly.
Of course, we need still to write how a tradesman block layer
could be able to lay 250 blocks in one day, in order to lay that many blocks he
must set everything the right way from the start, so let us continue how that
could be achieved. We have mentioned above a wall about ten meters long, but it
could be any length as long as it is not very short you can use the following
method. After laying the first course of blocks you build the two corners, say
four blocks high and you set your bricklayer line on these corners. Now make
sure that your labour has brought the blocks and placed them between the mortar
boards standing up us we have described above, this will save you the
bricklayer to lift the blocks in that position before you place the mortar on
them for the vertical joints.
Okay, everything is ready to go, tell the labour that he can
fill the mortar boards with fresh mortar; now pick up a plaster hawk and your
bricklayer trowel, fill up the hawk from the mortar board and start laying the
mortar on the block ribs on both sides, you see the blocks ribs are narrow and
you cannot use a full trowel of mortar straight from the board, well you can
but it is going to be hard to drop the right amount of mortar on the ribs, so
by using the hawk you can pick up a small amount of mortar from it and place is
straight on the block ribs, by doing this you will be able to lay your mortar
bed a lot faster without bending to many times, so you can save time and
energy, it is up to you if you lay the mortar bed for the entire course, or
only part of it, it may depend on the length of the wall and other factor, and
a good bricklayer knows what to do just by observing a few things; now that you
have laid the mortar bed place some mortar for the vertical joint on the blocks
that are already standing up, then leave your hawk and trowel on the mortar
board; you see you have to leave these tools there because you need both hands
free to lift up the blocks, here you have a choice, you can lift just one block
carefully lay it on the mortar without squashing it and tap it into position with your trowel and
when necessary even a hammer, now you can lift one block at a time and tap it
or a few blocks and then tap them into position, it is up to you whichever way
you prefer.
Anyhow, what we
have written above is how you could be able to lay more blocks with less
effort, it is worth to try, as we have tried it and it works. I hope that I
have been able to explain this procedure clear enough for our readers to
follow.
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