Exterior Thin Brick Pointers?

lund6771

we have a larger project coming up with roughly 5,000 SF in modular size exterior thin brick coming up...

typically we put on a mesh scratch coat, butter them up, & stick them on...

our guys are getting 50 SF a day in, or roughly 350 units...we come back with a grout gun to tuck the joints...

we use the same process for cultured stone, with getting the sae 50 SF a day for production

what can we be doing more effeciently because we are losing a lot of our work to tile setters?...

cleveman

please be so kind to explain more about what you are doing. You are installing face brick and your workers are able to churn out 50sq. ft. per day per person? Well that is quite fine, many are only able to get 45 sq. ft. per day. Yes, this is quite an accomplishment. Please expound.

lund6771

cleveman

yes...that is roughly what we are getting for production for one bricklayer per day...

i was looking for ways to speed it up a bit...

this is for an exterior appcation...Currently we snap lines up the wall for our coursing

it would be nice to smear he mortar on the wall, and then stick them on...but I'm concerned that we might not get the best bond and then how would you do your coursing

I guess I'm just looking for fedback to see what system works the best for people out there...

Thanks!!!!

cleveman

You should watch the tile layers do a job, I guess.

What part of the country are you in?

How are you back buttering the brick? Are you doing each piece with a notched trowel? What is your mortar? Where is your mortar? On a board or in a container?

If you have to backbutter, then you should have some sort of sled to put the product in. But a modular-sized brick! You had better build a sled to accept a stack of them, say 8 or ten.

I understand you don't want to lose your chalk lines.

What are you using for spacing? What size joints? I suppose tile-setting spacers are available in 1/2" or so. If not, cut up some pieces of wood.

Have you considered building leads or using a story pole to mark lines, then just pull a line off your lead or even put a line block on a mark on the wall? This would allow you to spread the mortar on the wall, but only for a course.

Maybe best to get a sled to have a laborer put the faces in and mortar them up for the layers. Try using the lines and do a course at a time as per usual. Use spacers.

I wouldn't think you'd need a line for every course. Get your first course in, then you should be able to go several courses before putting the line up again.

This is interesting because I'll be doing a backdrop for a stove one of these days and I'm thinking of taking a 12" tile and cutting it down to 2 7/8 x 12 and laying these on a 1/3 bond. But I'll be using 1/4" or tighter joints. It's 90 square feet and if I can't lay it in a day, I'll be disappointed.

This is doubly interesting because I would like to tile an exterior someday also, but thought of doing it with 12"x12" tile. I thought this would go quite quickly.

What are you getting with normal brick on average? 700/day?

Tscarborough

It may not be easier, but it is certainly faster to lay the brick into a bed of mortar thick enough to allow the squeeze out to be tooled. It eliminates the tucking, but you will have to use string on every third course or so.

__________________
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laybrick

It always seemed more practicle to me to stretch a line spaced out to the face of the brick. Face stays more true + no burying the chalk line. If you could set up three lines in this manner ,beyond the end of your wall by a few feet, maybe you could take a door shim, hold all 3 lines out enough to parge & throw 3 rows at a time while keeping all of the brick straight & true. Just a suggestion. Seems like no matter what ya try, it seems easier to just slap the mud on the back & throw a row on at a time

lund6771

Cleveman

I am in Minnesota

We butter the back of the brick with a trowel with spec-mix's "cultured stone mortat"...the stickier stuff

we also use mud-boards

for spacers we have a piece of wood that we have trigged for a 3/8" joint that is used for every course...

I think the sled idea is a good one..the laborers need something to do...this should defintely speed up production!!!

we get about 700 normal size brick in a day as well