Took me 8 hours to lay 30 bricks on a curved wall last Tuesday

I took a job building a garden wall in Portland and the homeowner wanted a curved section. Figured it would be a bit slower but nothing crazy. Cut my first brick wrong, then had to redo the mortar mix twice because it was too stiff for the curve. By the time I finished that little 4-foot stretch I was ready to throw my trowel. Has anyone found a good trick for keeping consistent gaps on a tight radius? My joints ended up looking like trash.

3 comments

3 Comments

the_james8d ago

Ah man, dry laying the curve first saved my sanity on a similar job.

-1

holly_henderson868d ago

Wait, you actually dry lay the whole curve first? I always thought that was a waste of time because I'd just lay as I go... but last month I tried it on a tricky patio and holy cow it made a huge difference. Seeing how everything fits before any mortar is down really lets you fix the little gaps before they become big problems. It's a bit more work upfront but saves so much hassle later, I'm totally sold on it now.

the_zara8d ago

Oh come on, is it really that big of a deal? I mean yeah I've dry laid stuff before but it's not like it saved my sanity or anything. You guys make it sound like some life changing thing when really you're just moving rocks around twice instead of once. I get it for super tricky curves with weird angles but for most jobs it feels like extra steps that don't matter that much. Maybe my standards are just lower or something but I've been laying as I go for years and I've never had a curve that was so bad it needed a full dry run first. Different strokes I guess but I'm not totally convinced it's worth the time for every project.