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Takes me an hour to drink a coffee and get my tools out. By then it's almost time to go down the cafe for a fry up. That style of bricklaying in the video of just picking up the mortar without rolling it, using the brick to make a shove joint for the perps and making a mess using double the...

Bricklaying is the trade where speed seems to be the most important factor. It's quite common for people not even in the trade to ask you if you can lay 1000 a day, because they've been told that's what a good brickie can do. They wouldn't ask a sparks how many houses he could rewire in a month...

I only work on an hourly rate nowadays, so 400 sounds good to me. The difference with doing an extension is that you need to make sure the quality is good enough for the customer and all his family, mates and people who look at the photos on forums to study and say yeah, not a bad job. On site...

The winner of the Specmix lays around 900. I've been to the competion. The record was 914. The reason it's often in the 750 or 800 region is that most of them get deductions from the total when the quality is checked, so 900 goes down to 700. Most of them lay over 900. Your claim of 1000 a day...

I don't think he'll be doing a 1000 a day on manholes, if he ever gets to build a brick manhole nowadays. The bricklaying championships in Las Vegas every year involve building a 9 inch stretcher bond straight wall. The winner normally averages about 900 in the hour.

I think Ivor is looking for a brickie to help him build a garage, so I'd guess wants someone on a day rate with him doing the labouring. Probably around £250-£350 a day. It's the sort of job I'd take on these days.

They should have liners so the air goes straight into the sub floor.

You need to brush them off, or they can soak back into the wall. Sometimes lime run off is confused with the issue. This can be harder to remove.

I use the law of the Olde Wilde West.

My understanding of them is that the steel is stretched to put into tension before the concrete is set, and the ends cut off later which then try and return and put stress on the concrete. I only lay them, not make them though. Prestressed lintels are likely to display a camber as an inherent...

The rough section on the top of a composite lintel gives a key for the 3 courses of brickwork on top before it can take a point load.

It's not an everyday occurrence, but it can be really serious when it does. The problem is that it's not a great design, and the older it gets the more likely it is to fail. They can go suddenly without any warning. It's also in a place where people are likely to be standing.

You're not being alarmist. Google concrete canopy collapse over house and look at the Cross report.

They were either cast insitu or precast in one piece reinforced concrete. As stated above, it's cantilevered from the wall. Quite common on the council houses back then. The canopies have been known to suddenly collapse.

Is it a boot lintel?

Sandstone should be laid on it's natural bed. If it isn't the face can spall. Imagine it as a loaf of sliced bread. If the face has the slices facing the weather they can delaminate.

For inside plastering a pure air lime is normally used, which is the softest and most breathable mix. A 6/1/1 mix is closer in strength to an NHL 3.5 mix. This is normally for exterior work. You could have used a 1/2/9 cement/lime/sand mix, which is similar in strength to an NHL 2 mix.

There's a number of reasons why a strong mix shouldn't be used. Firstly, the rest of the wall will expand and contract differently to the pointing, which will break the edges of the stone. Also moisture is better soaking into the joints, as the freeze/thaw and salts brought to the surface are...

It comes with experience knowing when to joint up. If it's really hot when laying a softer, more absorbent brick on a long run, you might find it easier to rub the bed joints up after each course and leave the cross joints. After a few courses the cross joints might be ready and you can do them...

Normally I put most of the water in at the start until it's just a bit too dry and then let it mix for 5 minutes to get some air into it. By then it's usually about right, but sometimes needs a bit more water. When mixing lime mortar I let it mix for about 15-20 minutes, then leave it for 20 to...