House building
This is a typical low set timber house of the sixties, in those times we were replacing the timber stumps with other materials as shown here.
House building in Brisbane
This is a typical low set timber house of the sixties, in those times we were replacing the timber stumps with other materials as shown here.
House building in Brisbane
Welcome to my page, House building in Brisbane;
In this page we are going to talk again about building work; House building in Brisbane in the sixties; Brick bases under timber houses, and, Working as a bricklayers' labour.
What we are going to talk about next might seem strange to people that live in the old continent of Europe as over there most houses are made of masonry, as the timber over there is more expansive than in Australia. Of course there might also be other good reasons why they are made of masonry, perhaps it is because of the colder climate, you see thick walls of masonry would absorb the heat during summer and act as storage of this heat by releasing it slowly during the colder months, and perhaps other reasons as well, anyhow houses over there would be built mostly from masons bricklayer and concreter, and the carpenters would only play a smaller part than they do in Australia, as the carpenters would be building some form-work and the roofs only, when the roofs were made of timber, because even the roofs sometimes are made of concrete.
Therefore when we the European migrants that came to Australia in the sixties thought this is strange, and we have to say that we had a real surprise to see that the carpenter played the role of builders, when houses were being built, because most houses here were mainly made of timber, we are saying this here just to compare houses building, between the old continent and Australia in those times, and we are not saying that this was good or bad practice, since we soon accepted the way of life we found and we thought there must be a good reason for it.
So, we all did what we had to do in whatever employment we found, and those of us who ended up working in the building industry just did what we were told to do. But as we all know just about everything changes with time and also the building of house would slowly change, as we will see later on even this sort of building houses with timber would slowly change even here. Now that we have made this comparison, let us go back to what I was doing myself in helping to build these houses; this help will become self explained as we keep writing what we were doing. Therefore let us talk about how most houses were being built by teams of workers, because that is how we were building houses in South East Queensland in the sixties.
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During the sixties in Brisbane most house were still being built of timber, on concrete or bricks stumps and a brick basement.
House building
in the sixties
House building in Brisbane in the sixties
In the sixties and seventies most houses building were done from teams
of subcontractors, who had their own team of building workers, even if they
were only a small team of two or three people, like the team I was working
with, which had two tradesman and one labour as myself, as we have already
explained in the previous hub. Now let me go over very briefly what sort of
teams were there; first of all there would be the concreters and bricklayers,
which usually could be the same team, as we were mostly building small houses
that did not have a lot to do with these trades, as the main work would be for
the carpenters, therefore there would be carpenter team, then the roof, the
electrician and the plumber and the plasters. The work of the builder, which
most times was the leading carpenter; because he had the largest job, so, he
not only would build the timber frame of the house, but also would organise all
the teams in a way that would be appropriate, so that they were not in each
other way while they were working and finally do all the finishing work
required.
In those times to be a builder of these stand alone houses on an
approved block of land was easy, as long as you were a building tradesman and
had some knowledge of building and you had the money to build them, or you had
a lender that would give you money to build, you had this opportunity to build
one of these houses, of course there were local authority inspections to be had
while we were building and at the end of it, but if you knew what you were
doing it was easy to pass. So there were so many house builders around that
would hire these teams of building workers as we were.
I need to say that there are good reasons to believe that the building
industry in Australia is one of the main driving forces of the economy, since
it employs lots of new comers that are willing to do some hard physical work to
earn their living, you see you don’t need to be a very learned person to work
on the building, all you need is some common knowledge of things and enough
English to understand what is wanted from you if you know what you are doing,
or you work with some people that speak your native language and they explain
to you what you need to do.
I believe that in the sixties and seventies there were very good
opportunities to work on building houses in the building industry, because the
price of the houses were more affordable than they are today. Just looking back
at those prices we could say that one of those cheaper houses would be worth
about four time the average wage of a person working full time for a year, so
people would be able to afford them, and therefore those builders that were
building them were able to sell their houses soon enough at a decent profit
that would enable them to build other house.
As we all know everything changes with the passing of time and there are
usually good reasons for them to change, as we usually become aware when we
look back at the changes that have taken place. So let us look at what has
taken place in the houses and other building accommodations in the building
industry.
You see in the beginning houses in Brisbane were mostly made of timber
and they were set on timber stumps, then in the sixties because the timber
stumps would rot or they would be attacked by white ants they gave way to
concrete stumps, and also some brick walls under the house. Then from just a
brick wall in front of the house they changed to a full brick base and some
concrete stumps or steel posts, then came the era of the brick veneer and
finally concrete and cavity bricks.
Now that we have said a few things about the history of house building
in Brisbane, let us talk about my contribution in the building industry and
what I did during the earlier part of my working building houses. If I remember
right in my last hub I was talking about how we were concreting the stumps for
a new house, and we also had laid the foundations for some brickwork, therefore
now, let us talk about the brickwork base under the house.
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Brick based
houses
Brick base under timber houses
As we have already mentioned before, there were many type of houses
being built in those times and some of them had a brick base or just the front
wall under the house built in bricks. So, this was another job that we did with
our small team of bricklayer and concrete workers.
In order to be efficient and competitive a small team that lays bricks
needs to be made of two bricklayers and a labour, of course there can be any
sort of teams and larger teams that can work well with a different number of
people, but anyhow this is what was like then and as I said our team had two
bricklayer and a labour as myself.
Now that I have explained my position let us start working so that I can
describe how things work out and who does what and how it should be done. It is
usually the leader of the bricklayer team that decides from where to start. But
if he is not there then it is up to whoever is there to start getting ready
where the bricklayers have to start. This is not hard to know because to lay
bricks you need to start from the lowest part of the foundation, So when I was
working as a labour I would get ready the bricks and the combo boards, at the
lowest point of the foundation, so that when the bricklayer had to start all I
had to do to start them going was to give them fresh mixed mortar on these combo
boards, and then continue to supply them with brick and mortar as required, I
suppose that it is hard work for the labour and also for the bricklayer,
because at the end of the day one has to handle so many bricks, since in a day
a bricklayer on a normal wall is supposed to lay on average up to 500 face
bricks, or up to a thousand common bricks, of course this is just wishful
thinking and most times we didn’t but we had to try to get there. This is how
the team usually works, but now let me break it down and describe to you what
the labour does and then what the bricklayers have to do, as I know all this
because later I became and worked as a bricklayer for decades myself, but now
let us talk about what the bricklayers’ labour has to do.
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Working as a
bricklayer labour
What do you do when you are working as a brickies labour?
The brickies labour job is hard work as I have said above and it is also
a semiskilled work, since he has got to know how to go about to supply mortar
and bricks to the bricklayer at the right time in the right place. It is
obvious that he has to have at his disposition a mixer to mix mortar and two
wheelbarrows and sometimes other small devises to help him achieve that.
Here I need to point out that to start a new job it is very hard, as the
ground on the site is not flat and generally there are hips of dirt around the
foundations where the brick or block walls are going to be built, so, the
labour needs first of all to flatten the ground a bit so that the mortar boards
and the bricks can be positioned at the right distance from the foundation,
usually this is about 60 centimetre plus from the walls that are being built,
so that the bricklayers have enough room to move and at the same time they can
reach the bricks and the mortar boards without walking; in order to achieve
that there needs to be one mortar boards and then one stack of bricks and again
one mortar board and another stack of brick and so on for the whole length of
the wall being built. Now that we have made it ready and the bricklayers are
going to start to lay bricks soon, let me prepare the mortar, which some people
may call cement or combo.
Preparing or mixing the mortar
Here again there are rules to follow how to mix good mortar, so, one has
to keep in mind first of all what sort of material is available and can be
delivered on the local site, because quantity and quality may vary a bit with
the locality. Anyhow let us assume that for this job a load of brickies loam
has been delivered on the site; in this case this brickies loam has some lumps
in it, so it needs to be screened before or after mixing the mortar, as I have
already screened some of it I am ready to mix it now.
So I start the mixer and put in some clean water, and a small measure of
mortar mix (this is a chemical that helps the mortar to be more workable) then
I put in say a shovel full of Portland cement and four shovels full of brickies
loam, this is how we usually mix mortar to lay bricks, it is one part of cement
to four parts of loam by volume, therefore for bigger batches you can have say;
three shovels full of cement and twelve shovelful of loam and so on. Of course
sometimes these quantities can vary, if for instance it is written in the
specifications that the mortar has to be made with different amount of
materials.
Anyhow let me go back to this batch of mortar that I have just mixed to
the right consistency; Now, I take the wheelbarrow near the mixer and tip the
mortar in the wheelbarrow, and then take the wheelbarrow with the mortar near
the mortar boards, here I wet the mortar boards before I place the mortar on
them and finally I am ready for the bricklayers to get started. From now on I
have to make sure that the bricklayers have always enough mortar and bricks,
otherwise the bricklayers will we shouting at me Bricks! Or combo! (Or mortar!)
Dear readers if I have missed a few things you just have to use your own
common sense to get everything going the right way, you see most things on the
building site is just plain common sense.
I believe that I have said enough in this hub and although there is a
lot to be said about the bricklayer, how they are going to lay the bricks for
this brick base, I am going to leave it for next hub, which we are going to
call, DIY brickwork, here I will try to explain it in as many details as I can
how to build a house base with bricks, in fact we are going to write a group of
articles about bricklaying and other building trades, here I hope that I can
line them up in such a way that would make it easy to follow them. Anyhow, see
you soon in our next hub, DIY brickwork.
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