carry
the scaffold boards (see SCAFFOLD, SCAFFOLDING). Bricks are carried to the
scaffold on a hod which holds twenty bricks, or they may be hoisted in
baskets or boxes by means of a pulley and fall, or may be raised in larger
numbers by a crane. The mortar is taken up in a hod or hoisted in pails and
deposited on ledged boards about 3 ft. square, placed on the scaffold at
convenient distances apart along the line of work. The bricks are piled on
the scaffold between the mortar boards, leaving a clear way against the
wall for the bricklayers to move along. The workman, beginning at the
extreme left of his section, or at a quoin, advances to the right,
carefully keeping to his line and frequently testing his work with the
plumb-rule, spirit-level and straight-edge, until he reaches another angle,
or the end of his section. The pointing is sometimes finished off as the
work proceeds, but in other cases the joints are left open until the
completion, when the work is pointed down, perhaps in a different mortar.
When the wall has reached a height from the scaffold beyond which the
workman cannot conveniently reach, the scaffolding is raised and the work
continued in this manner from the new level.

[Illustration: FIG. 1.]

It is most important that the brickwork be kept perfectly plumb, and that
every course be perfectly horizontal or level, both longitudinally and
transversely. Strictest attention should be paid to the levelling of the
lowest course of footings of a wall, for any irregularity will necessitate
the inequality being made up with mortar in the courses above, thus
inducing a liability for the wall to settle unequally, and so perpetuate
the infirmity. To save the trouble of keeping the plumb-rule and level
constantly in his hands and yet ensure correct work, the bricklayer, on
clearing the footings of a wall, builds up six or eight courses of bricks
at the external angles (see fig. 1), which he carefully plumbs and levels
across. These form a gauge for the intervening work, a line being tightly
strained between and fixed with steel pins to each angle at a level with
the top of the next course to be laid, and with this he makes his work
range. If, however, the length between the quoins be great, the line will
of course sag, and it must, therefore, be carefully supported at intervals
to the proper level. Care must be taken to keep the "perpends," or vertical
joints, one immediately over the other. Having been carr