Episode 008 1995 - 96 Season

| House Wrap | Fiberglass Wall Insulation | Sun Tunnel Skylights | Accessorizing (design) | Building with Bricks | Conventional Loans | |

To order a Video Tape, call 1-800-TO-BUILD and ask for Episode #008.


You Can Do It - Building with Bricks

Al Carrell: While you may never get as proficient as a professional bricklayer, there are a lot of projects you can get involved in. For example, you might want to do a barbecue pit or you might want to do a wall coming out from your house. There are all sorts of things that you can do. One thing that you need to know is that the mortar that holds it together is a mortar mix. You can buy that. All you have to do is add water. The next thing is, be careful about the amount of water that you add in there. You want to have it about the consistency of pancake batter. And then, here's a trick that I learned from an old bricklayer, and I don't know why, but he always put just a little shot of liquid soap in there and mixed that up and he said it really gave it a lot better consistency, made it easy to work with, and I've always used it and it's worked out fine. One of the things that you want to keep in mind is that the width of the mortar joints makes a difference in what you're going to end up with in the number of bricks. A quarter inch joint would require seven bricks per square foot, while a 3/8 inch joint would use only 6.55 bricks per square foot. Now that doesn't sound like very much, but over a large surface, like a whole wall, it's going to mount up. I think the overall look is about the same and the mortar is a lot cheaper than bricks. If you wonder how much brick laying you can do with a 60 pound bag of mix like this, it'll handle about 30 bricks using a 3/8 inch mortar joint. This is a little tool that you use to rake the joints. If you don't want to do that though, a lot of people will use the end of a toothbrush, the handle part, and that does a pretty nice job. But my favorite is just take a rubber glove, put that on and let your fingers do the raking. The important thing is, if you're making repairs, make your joints look like the rest in the wall. Incidentally, if you have left over mortar, be sure you store it in a plastic bag. Otherwise, it's going to turn into a rock and not be useable.

Episode 008 1995 - 96 Season

| House Wrap | Fiberglass Wall Insulation | Sun Tunnel Skylights | Accessorizing (design) | Building with Bricks | Conventional Loans | |

To order a Video Tape, call 1-800-TO-BUILD and ask for Episode #008.