Masonry

Fort Dorchester

A quicker and more precise way to lay brick is to lay a bed of mortar and then set your bricks into place and then go back and fill the joints with a grout bag. after we filled in the joints, we used a tuck pointing trowel to compact the mortar. after that, we just scraped off the excess mortar using a margin trowel. We had to go back after the mortar dried and clean them with a sponge. We put a boarder on the brick for structural support and also so water could drain down the angled mortar. 

I had a special project of working on the entryway. It was challenging to do the brick on the angle and visualize it while we were designing it.  

Here I am using the grout bag to fill in the joints. The mortar that is used is made with a higher ratio of the lime binder to sand. The consistency of the mix needs to be thin enough to easily squeeze out of the grout bag but thick enough to fill the joints and build product up. 

Here is the final product! I enjoyed working on the entryway because it was my own work and i liked the challenge of having to use my imagination to come up with an idea. I loved using the grout bags. They were very easy to use and it made the job go much quicker. 

Practice Makes Perfect

 This was our first try at laying brick and it was enjoyable. We set up boards to practice and we will use those same boards and bricks until we have enough experience to build structures. 

A close up of the joints and view to show laying to the string line. 

Here, I am tapping down a brick with my trowel to put it in place and make sure it is level and plum with the others to create a straight wall.  

Adding To ACBA Campus 

 On the walls that we previously capped of with slate, we are continuing to build them up to make it an amphitheater shape with each level rising. We started by building up the corners so we could run our string line for the center portion. 

This is my section of the wall. After setting up the corners, I was able to build the center up and then I laid my brick according to those corners. 

This is the corner that I built based on the brick below. 

Here, I am working on the infill structure. The bricks are dirty because they are the ones we practiced with and they will be covered so no one will see them. We will be building along the other side for our mid-term exam for the class. 

Brown Stone 

Once we built the foundation, we were able to pick a pattern that we wanted to use for the brown stone block. We then picked all of our stones and put them in place to make sure they fit and we cut some blocks to a specific size to fit. We had to disassemble the wall so we created a numbering system so it was easy to put back into place when we build it.

We began laying one block at a time. We had to make sure we wet the foundation and the brick because the lime pulls the moisture out of the stone, which makes it dry too fast to make a strong bond. We had to use levels and strings to make sure the blocks were in line and also level with each other. We used mallets to put the stones in place and move them. 

We used a joint size of about ¼ inch. The lime in the mortar leaves the white marks on the stone. After the blocks were put in place, we wiped the joints with a sponge to clean them off and leave a clean joint. 

We were able to use a previous student’s stone carving to make the transition of angles. It was the perfect height and width so it fit right in place. 

Here, my classmates and I are laying the last 2 blocks of the wall. We had the obstacle of lining up the block with the string and making sure it was the right size. We had to use a scribe to mark the measurement that we needed. Then, we used the rotating saw to trim down the block to the correct size. After that, we used a hammer and pitcher to make the face of the block match the rest. 

Here, I am using a 2-foot level to make sure the blocks are lining up so that they are level. If we don’t do this at this stage, It makes it harder to make the next layer of blocks level. 

Here, I am using a mallet to put the stone into place and slide it over to make a strong and tight joint to the block beside it.