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Took me 8 years to figure out I was butterflying my bricks all wrong
Honestly I was at a job in Portland last spring and this old timer walked over and just stared at my work for like 2 minutes. He goes 'son you're butterflying the ends but leaving the center dry' and that's when it clicked. I had been spreading mortar in this U shape instead of covering the whole bed, which left weak spots in the middle of every joint. Anybody else have that moment where a simple observation from a coworker changed how you lay?
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brian30310d ago
Four years ago I was pouring a concrete walkway for a lady in Gresham and her grandson came out to watch. He was maybe 10 years old and he said 'Mister, why are you making the water puddle in the middle instead of spreading it flat?' That kid was right. I had been pouring too fast in the center thinking it would level itself out but it always left a low spot that collected water. Same thing your old timer pointed out. Seems like most things in life you gotta pay attention to the middle part, not just the edges.
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Yeah did he also tell you to mash that mortar into the brick like you mean it? That little fix probably saved you a ton of callbacks. Funny how the simplest stuff is what we miss for years.
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