IllstudyYOU

Efficiency is key. 3 Masons for every helper and a forklift driver unless its stone work, if its stone work it's 5 masons for 2 helpers, or 2 Masons with 1 helper. Masons put most of their energy in the mornings. If you can, start nice and early, and leave nice and early. Most efficient hours are starting from 7-3, where lunch break is taken at noon. Have more scaffolds/arms/brackets/planks than you need. Also......dont hire talkers. They fuck the dog. The shy quiet type is the way to go in Masonry because it takes A LOT of FOCUS to be a good bricklayer. The ones who talk the most will more than likely do the sloppiest work. Cleanliness is key. Not all bricks are 100% straight, and i dont care how good of a mason you are.... but if its clean and spotless? Most wouldn't notice that 1 brick that's tilted. You usually get paid by completion of walls. For example a builder will pay out per wall completion and/or per house completion. Where im at, its usually a per wall completion. I dont know where you live, but over here, it costs 650 dollars per day, per employee. So if your crew is 5 people, it will cost you 3250 per day for workers alone. Doesnt include fuel, maintenance, and/or the builder provides you with the sand, cement, paper, plastic/etc.

My last piece of advice is if you've never worked Masonry before, and want to open a Masonry company, you will fail. If you dont know what the fuck is going on, you won't notice the mistakes, and mistakes are costly as fuck. There are too many variables in brick that can make a company go bankrupt in a heartbeat. Last but not least, for fuck sakes, safety first. I've been a mason for 15 years and i've had to bury 2 friends from falls. Both falls were caused by broken planks that the forklift driver didn't screen out when setting up scaffolds. Its a dangerous ass job for the workers and highly stressful job for the bosses because mistakes can cost you thousands and cost you the lives of your employees. A single brick from 6 feet can kill you. A fall from 3 feet can kill you. Scaffolds can collapse, fork lifter can run someone over, hell ive seen entire walls collapse. If you are not on top of your game, you will h ave a bad time.

Window guys don't make they windows level and are sometimes off by an inch which throws us off. The floor that divides the first floor from the second floor sometimes sticks out as much as 3 inches from the foundation, which in turn makes our walls off level. Foundation guys make off level foundations. These are probably the worst ones that can really make masonry work look bad, everything else is just another Monday.

It's not easy. It's very hard, sometimes torture. But it's rewarding when a house is done because some are just so damn beautiful.

And hidding things happens often. But hidding things happen in all traits, and some are worse than others and is to the eye of the beholder.

For example, nobody is gonna notice a brick I out backwards, 3 stories up, on a sidewall that's 2 feet from the neighbors house. I'll see it on the way down when the wall is finished and cleaning it. Nobody is history will know about that 1 brick that's backward untill the house gets demolished.

Another example, and I see happen often is lack of wall Tyes. Wall Tyes are used to anchor the brick to the interior walls. The house needs to move as 1 when the foundation inevitably shifts over the course of its life. The wall Tyes makes sure the interior moves with the exterior. I've worked for bosses who skimped on wall Tyes like nobodies business. I didn't know better because I was still an apprentice. Sometimes smaller companies will skimp on material to save money.

Woah woah woah.....i lied, i looked at the photos again. The first one IS a model home. Its being sold for 1.7 million here in Toronto Canada. I did that one last year.

Actually no, that's my friend Wilson, hes kind of a dick.