When tackling any project be it a small job like a letter box or a larger undertaking such as a garden wall,
things are great deal easier if you get the fundamentals right .
One overlooked factor is the mortar that you use.
If it’s not mixed properly and doesn’t have the the correct proportions of sand , cement and lime even a pro will struggle.
When your doing it for a living you want things to be as easy as possible .
When the mortar is mixed properly a brickie will be able to lay the bricks just by pushing down with his hand and not have to tap with the trowel at all.

Depending on where you are on this big old planet the ingredients for a workable mortar are going to vary but the same rules still apply.

  1. Each batch should be measured accurately using buckets.
  2. Use a mechanical mixer if possible.
  3. Don’t use too much water , mix as dry a mix as possible and add only enough water to achieve a thick creamy consistency.
  4. Don’t mix too much at one time if it starts “going off” it makes life difficult.

Here in Western Australia we have a pre mixed cement product called “Brickies Lite” and “Brickies Grey”
They come in 17kg bags, the “lite” is used for faced brickwork and the “grey” is used for internal render brickwork.
I use 60 litres of yellow brickies sand and around 22 litres of water to each bag .
I’ll be making a short video soon to show you in practice what i’ve just explained in this article.