Found out my trowel angle was causing all those furrows in my brick faces

Ngl, I've been dealing with ugly drag marks on my brick faces for like 6 months. A old timer at the Bricklayers Union hall in Philly watched me work for 2 minutes and told me to tilt my trowel back by 10 degrees when buttering the ends. Tried it on my last job at a townhouse row on Pine Street and the finish came out smooth as glass. Has anyone else had a simple angle fix save them from a ton of patching work?

2 comments

2 Comments

pat_perry28d ago

And you're right richard, but I think the bigger point here is how much of a difference a tiny tweak can make... I used to get these really bad furrows that went like a quarter inch deep and it took forever to patch them all up. A 10 degree tilt sounds small but it completely changes how the mortar flows off the trowel. I saw a guy on a job site in Jersey who was fighting with drag marks for years and he finally switched to a smaller trowel and it fixed his problem too... sometimes just the basic stuff is the answer.

richard_ramirez29d ago

Smooth as glass" is a little dramatic dont you think? I mean its brick not a mirror. But yeah I get what you're saying, angle changes can make a difference. I've been laying brick for 15 years and I still get drag marks sometimes, its just part of the job if you ask me. People act like its the end of the world but a little patching never hurt anyone.