Tried metric bricks vs modular bricks on a retaining wall and metric won by a mile

Did a job last month up in Portland where the spec called for metric sized bricks. I've always used modular for retaining walls since that's what my old foreman taught me. But the metrics laid out way cleaner, less cutting around the corners, and the whole wall went up in 3 days instead of 4. Anyone else get stuck on one brick size and found switching was better?

3 comments

3 Comments

the_derek18d ago

Funny you mention Portland. I was out there last fall for a family thing and stopped at this old hardware store that still had wooden bins of loose bricks. Guy behind the counter spent like 20 minutes telling me about how they used to sort bricks by hand for color matching in the 70s. Crazy how much we take the uniform stuff for granted now.

reese_nelson18d ago

You ever had to re-cut a corner twice? Metric saves that headache every time.

mark_price18d ago

Hands down the worst busted knuckles I ever had was running that tape back and forth.