Tips and Tricks for Brickwork

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Sometimes remodeling your home requires that you use certain types of bricks that are suited to the renovation you’re doing. While you may not be a landscaping Escondido, CA specialist, it’s beneficial to know that there are different kinds of specially made bricks to help you achieve your particular vision, and in this article, we’ll be showing you how each of these bricks is shaped, cut, and placed.

Brick Shapes

Bricks come in many different shapes such as plinth header, plinth stretcher, internal return, cant brick, squint brick and so much more than you can find in the image below.

Source: DIY Doctor

Brick Cuts

All these cuts are based on your normal rectangular shaped brick:

– Snapped header: This is a normal brick that has been cut in half horizontally.
– Queen closure: This is a brick that has been cut in half vertically.
– King closure: A normal size brick with a piece of the bottom right corner cut out.
– Beveled closure: Here, the top right corner has been cut out halfway to the bottom right corner in a triangular position.
– Quarter bat: With this one, the entire bottom structure has been cut out to a quarter of its former size.
– Three-quarter bat: A quarter of the brick has been cut out.
– Large beveled bat: A quarter of the brick has been cut at an oblique angle.

Pointing Methods

– Flush
– Bucket handle
– Overlap
– Cut or recessed
– Weathered/ French

Extending Time

To prevent your sand and cement mixture from going hard too fast, you should add a little bit of fairy liquid to a mixture with cement and sandbags right when you are first starting to extend the amount of time you’re able to work on your project, whether it’s a garden wall or a BBQ stand.

Mortar

Use a plasticizer that’s specifically made for mortar to make it easier to work with. You can purchase a plasticizer by the gallons at your local building trader. It’s also a good idea to use washing up liquid when working with mortar.

Quality

Aside from knowing which brick cut and shape to go with when doing landscape design Escondido work, it’s equally essential for your bricks to be of the same size and shape, so that there are no gaps when constructing a wall or any other type of edifice. You’ll also do well to work with bricks that are well-made, strong, burnt well, and of a uniform color.

There should be no cracks, holes, air bubbles or lumps in the bricks you’ll be working with, as that might compromise the integrity of the structure later on. Remember, a construction work of any kind is only as good as its weakest link, and you should be able to place your bricks in the required horizontal position without any irregularities.