welcome to the howto video on laying
bricks I'm your
host Lou and there's my helper my also
my son
Luke and we're going to build over the
next few days this here's a picture
we've mocked up of it it's the um
fireplace on the one side on the left
side and then the place to put a metal
Grill on the right side and I have the
grill right back
here that's where the grill is going to
part of that's going to be ripped off
and put in the rest will be put in let's
go over the tools we
need uh well first of all supplies I
guess you're going to need
bricks there they are uh you're going to
need a bricking tri you can get this at
a hardware store it's about that big
compared to your hand a lot of other
trials make sure you get that
one um a brick jointer it is just a
curved Edge
tool and what happens is when you put
two bricks together you're going to have
mortar in between and then you use this
thing to kind of push it in like that to
give it the nice rounded Edge that you
see when you look at uh brick
walls uh next here's a torpedo level you
know about 10 in long and a 18in level
that's good for when you're laying
bricks uh when you put one brick on top
of the other and you're stacking it up
you know if the mortar gets out of not
quite even it might be out of level
that's why you lay this guy on there and
squish it until it gets
right
um I don't know if you really have to
use this or not this is a rubber rubber
mallet in case you want to you know tap
the bricks into the mortar a little bit
that may not be needed but I had one so
I brought it
um this after the bricking is
done uh you'll have some you know no
one's perfect you end up getting some
mortar on the edge of the brick it's
really kind of hard to wash off so you
have this acid wash uh right here it's
just it's just mytic acid just be care
we'll talk about this later you have to
be careful with this stuff it's really
mean stuff um but it it's the only thing
that'll eat away concrete and mortar um
also available at the hardware store
here's an acid wash
brush honestly I don't know that is much
different than any other brush so if you
have a brush you're probably fine but
that's a thing to you know obviously to
brush off the bricks and also you're
supposed to use a brush after you do um
mortaring to kind of brush off excess
mortar before it dries so will'll use
that for that
too um over here this this tool is
really important this is almost as
important as it a trol I would suppose
this looks like a regular ruler foldup
ruler that you'd see at the hardware
store but uh there's one difference this
is
a you can see that on there maybe you
can't well you probably can't but it
says brick spacing Rule and it has
unfortunately I wish you could see it oh
maybe you can see it there um it
has lines on it for measuring bricks and
mortar so your first brick would go here
mortar here and let's say you go to the
five then you go to the next one to the
five to the five to the five to the five
it tells you where to lay each brick as
you go and it's really important to keep
your brick spacing uh even or else it
looks bad in the end this whole thing is
this ruler is like $13 ruler or so uh at
hardware store then some other things
you might need is uh just a regular
ruler for measuring whatever uh you want
to build some scaffolding or uh not
scaffolding but sort of a guide to put
string on we'll see that in a minute so
you got um you know drill and bar clamp
we'll show that later and then lastly if
it's not going well for you these tools
here are very handy this is a miniature
Sledgehammer to knock down your brick
wall and this is a phone to call
somebody else to do the job for you but
hopefully you won't have to use either
of those
uh because when we're done uh you'll be
able to lay
bricks this is the end of the deck the
railing has been ripped off the end of
the deck here and a huge hole has been
dug and filled with brick uh concrete
blocks um this hole is 32 in deep which
is below the frost line in in this part
of the country you'll have to uh get on
the internet and find how deep is the
frost line in your part of the country
what you want to do is dig a hole down
to the frost
line and then pour in some PE gravel and
then uh mix up some bags of uh
sacr you can get at the hardware store
that's like five bucks a bag or so down
in there 4 in of concrete then put these
blocks on top make sure you keep them
level in this case we want to be level
with the deck another option if you're
just putting this fireplace not up next
to something
you could just lay a concrete pad on on
the dirt you you know you don't have to
go down that the reason I needed to dig
down is I don't want this thing to shift
at all and then be misaligned with the
deck if if you're not worried about that
you just you know go out in the yard
somewhere scrape out an area lay down a
4-in concrete pad and then brick on top
of that um if you do it's not not a bad
idea to put rebar that's um you know
that metal metal bar in the
concrete so it won't crack what we've
done is taken a just a just a board and
it's a 2X
two and make sure it's level both ways
put the 4ot level against it you can use
any any level really but just put the
4ot level against it make sure it's
level that way and that way and then put
these angle boards and clamp them in
place so that this thing won't move
same thing on the other side and now
what we do is you want to Mark where
your bricks are going to go and if you
can see in close there these lines every
so often this is where our bricks each
row of bricks like this every row of
bricks is going to end up at a line like
this and we're actually going to take a
string and attach it from here down to
the other end down there and so as we go
along These Bricks will be right under
the string really important otherwise it
it this looks terrible it'll be all over
the place before you realize it string
is extremely
important then back to this uh ruler um
LC has stretched out the ruler and used
the bar clamp to clamp it onto the pole
and then he's
marked the way we did this was we
started put put the ruler against the
bottom and then you look for we're going
to do with five spacing there's you can
use 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 there's different
spacings five is a good average one and
our house our house we measured it seems
to have about a five spacing so we're
going to try to try to keep the grill uh
this fireplace the same way so you just
Mark at the five line so you put the
ruler to the bottom mark it the five
line then Mark the next five the next
five the next five the next five next
five all the way up is's the mortar mix
up here this is uh I don't know I guess
five bucks a bag or so at the hardware
store um but anyway we're going to mix
some mortar now okay here's a really
fast way to mix mortar in a wheelbarrow
it's nice to have a watering buddy um
you know you do the you do the mixing
and the other person just Waters very
lightly keeps it always wet but no
puddles go ahead anytime you see dry you
just keep watering
it and this makes it really fast you get
the water where you need
it
constantly there you have it you can
have a whole bag of mortar mixed in
probably 3
minutes okay here we are the mortar is
um completely mixed there you go the
consistency of mashed potatoes do
this this is a little bit of an AR
but you get better at it smooth it out
and then grab a little bit on your Tri
like that just pick up a line of it on
your Tri and drop it right in place on
the on the uh concrete
block there's a little more there to
drop on and we're going to put some here
just a little bit
that and then simply lay the brick in
place make sure you put the good side
out and you see there's the bad side of
the brick there's the good side get the
good side out drop them in
place push it
down this is where the rubber mallet you
could use I suppose we'll see how this
goes just drop this guy right onto the
string simple enough