eddief

Hi again,

I'm finally delivering on my promise. Steaks, anyone?

I'll post a few steaks here so all of you can have a taste.

The roof is on. Now for some finishing touches and it's ready.

That's a really good job for your first attempt. You can see a great improvement on the top piece.

Thanks Stuart.

Did you really do this?

Yes, I did that. There's no point in cheating by having someone else to do the job. This is learning the hard way.

What happened to the pointing on the inside?

The bricks I was working with were terrible. When the gap between the outside edges is about 1cm and the bricks are laying flat, the inside edges almost touch. So I gave up pointing on the inside.

Hello again,

Here are the latest developments in a few pictures. The metal grill is also my handiwork.

Hi guys,

Last sunday, with a little help from friends and neighbours, I muscled the work top into place. I'm looking forward to the next weekend and bulding the top part. I'll try to pay more attention to pointing.

Seriously though, will this all be visible permanently or will it be hidden?

I haven't decided yet. I'll try to do something with the joints now that the mortar has dried. If the result pleases me I'll leave it at that.

I would seriously advise though that its well worth practicing, even consider pulling it down carefully and having another bash at it...

You must be joking.

What trowels are you using to lay your muck down?

You're talking to a computer programmer. I know my IFs and WHILEs quite well. I can't say the same about trowels.

I've uploaded a few pics for you to criticise my work. Bare in mind this is my first masonry adventure.

The "plasticiser" works as a charm. I hosed the bricks down the night before laying them. Everything went more-or-less smoothly. How long does it take for the mortar to cure? I need to lift the work top (a nearly 200kg concrete slab) on top of the brick walls. Thanks again. You were wery helpful.

Thanks guys. I'm going at it again on saturday. I'll get back with the results.

Doesn't lime slow the hardening of mortar? I don't know what you mean by what type of sand I'm using. It's pure fine grain sand.

Hi all,

I recently started work building a brick barbecue. The concrete base turned out perfect, but I didn't get much further than that. I'm having a lot of trouble mixing good, easily workable mortar. The mix I tried is 6:2:1 (sand:lime:cement). Since I'm just getting started in laying bricks, I need to take my time adjusting the bricks into place. This seems impossible with the mortar I made. No matter how much water I put in it, the mortar dries fast and doesn't stick to the bricks (bricks that have been layed 24hrs ago can easily be removed by hand). What am I doing wrong?