Old timer told me to butter my own ends and it saved my bacon on a tricky job

I was working on a curved garden wall last spring and kept getting gaps at the perp ends. This guy Frank, been bricklaying 40 years, watched me for a minute and said "you gotta butter your own ends every time, never rely on the other brick." I thought I was saving time by just slapping mortar on the face. Turned out he was dead right because 3 of my first 6 bricks had hollow spots where they met. I had to pull down about 4 feet of work and redo it. Now I spend an extra 10 seconds per brick but the joints come out solid every time. Anyone else have old heads give you advice that seemed slow but actually worked?

2 comments

2 Comments

the_oscar18d ago

butter your own ends" that's exactly what my uncle said about wiring up switch boxes and it saved me an hour of troubleshooting.

the_susan18d ago

Honestly @the_oscar I used to skip that step but now I always do it.