Hello fella. I started as an apprentice bricklayer in 1976 with my dad at Barratts. Like you I did mainly hod carrying for the first few months, also bucket handle pointing. Back then they really were old bucket handles. No jointing marshall town tools to buy from b and q 😂 It's been a hard working life, some times almost torture in footings in the winter months. I always loved snek and jumper, and random rubble stone work the best. Being a bricklayer, mason , can be very rewarding at the end of a week's work. Knowing auwer work could still be standing in hundreds of years time..😔😊
Don't often take a second look at these channels, most of the guys hosting them haven't a clue. You know what you are talking about for sure. I go back to the days of brick inside walls and fishtail ties when air movement inside the cavity was okay. We covered down the top of the cavity with bricks too. The first job apprentices and trainees got was backing up the inside walls. I know most of the stuff I was taught has long been discredited, But it gives a knowledge of how those building were constructed. I'm going to sub to your channel because even at the age of seventy five we can still learn and refresh stuff long forgotten and get a bit of insight into what's happening in the building trade right now.
I am new to your channel. A big thumbs up from me and I have subscribed. It brings back some memories. Unfortunately, for me anyway not all good. I did an apprenticeship in 1982. I was a coveted CITB apprentice. For me it was without doubt the worst mistake of my life but long since rectified without any regrets. A proper apprenticeship with college block release (Tottenham Tech) then 3 years day release. Egg-shaped sewers, arches axed and rough-ring, twisted piers, twisted crosses in the Advanced Craft. 40% was practical and 60% theory when on block release doing C&G craft. You name it we did it. We learned so much. We even did abseiling and rock-climbing in Michael Sobells sports Centre at Finsbury Park as part of it. PE on a Friday morning as a Brickwork Apprentice. Rat-trap, Diapers the lot. I almost got the coveted silver trowel getting 2 Distinctions and a Credit in the advanced craft. Starting smoking and my first wife were the other 2 big mistakes. 30 years away from the trowel and industry as a 'living' now. Horses for courses and all that. 2 questions for anyone who cares to put their tuppence ha'penny in. Honest answers please. 1. If you had your time over again with the benefit of experience would you be on the trowel. Or any other trade for that matter. 2. I only have a daughter but for those that have sons would you push them towards the trade or swerve them well away from it. Sorry for the long comment (response) where in some parts it may sound like a tirade. It's not. We all have different experiences etc. I personally found the construction industry to be completely awful and a total snore-fest but it obviously formed my early work-life. My answers to the questions will be quite obvious.
We probably met as kids. I started at Tottenham in '80 so was 2 years ahead of you. I did all the same things you mentioned, loved every minute of it. I was actually lucky enough to get a Silver Trowel. 3 In my class that year, mostly down to 'Geoff Stokes' , was that the Tutors name? (And I built one of those egg shaped sewers lol) 1) Yes I'd still be a brickie but I'd have moved mountains to buy multiple properties so I could launch my trowel into the Thames at 40. If only we'd known. 2)Any child of mine becomes a trowel and their no longer a child of mine 😁
@@SilverTrowel631Yep. Geoff Stokes from Yorkshire. He was my main lecturer from 82-85. My letdown on the silver trowel was I didn't attend towards the end as I went self employed at 18 and a half paying for my own Advanced Craft. Got two dists on the written papers and a Cred for course work. Fortunately I've not been near a site for 30+ years. Very very rare now that I lay a brick and only ever on my own property. The other lecturers there were Hicks, Roberts and Bunting.
Tottenham Tech still exists but has been through various mergers, name changes etc. It became CONEL (College of North East London) then CHENEL, I think after merging with Haringey College and Enfield College on Hertford Road. Whether they still have a Brickwork Dept I have no clue. It would never now be as in depth as it was in the 80s. Stretcher bond and more stretcher bond possibly followed by stretcher bond as you say on square boxes. Mind numbing.
@@bricklayersworldwithandy6277 It's still a college but I don't think they do building anymore. Not since the demise of the CITB. Yeah, probably 90's. The place was in a lot of demand. They could have trebled their intake if they had the room. But they taught every trade. We built a house out back every year, all the trades got involved and we knocked it down when it was finished. Happy days.
Irish brickie here in East Coast USA , been at it since 1982, couple years in london , Australia, done the subbie thing had 15 guys at one time, loss almost every thing to taxman barely kept my house,any mostly apprentice s . Any body who gets into this trade is a fool . I am 58 working since 16 , nothing but hard ship . But it pays the bills too late to change. Young people find another profession before it's too late.
Started laying bricks soon after school and hod carried, totally agree about learning running to the line as in them days all footings were common or fletons, great way to get the knack of laying,
Waiting for you to join ukip 😂 jokes aside. Brilliant video yesterday Andy, certainly opened my eyes. I've been in the game 20+ yrs. On price, doing OK but private pension. Lol My Mrs is a teacher and we've got 2 children. Pension is a pipe dream. I'll work till I'm dead. I'll have too
I watched it.. very good video.. was thinking about it today, getting drowned building inside walls in Ireland today.. In the game 30 years.. keep up the good work
I commented on your last post Andy it a pleasure listening to you common sense .like listening to the lads i served my time with in the mid eighties unfortunately you don’t here bricklayers with this sort of knowledge no more me included to many years site bashing in my case I guess 👍ps I remember replaying the old steel wall ties that had blown the face bricks rusting at a old school play write Alan ackboure bought looking over Scarborough bay in North Yorkshire it was bloody freezing 🥶
Take care pal your one of the last old school great british brickies, the uk is failing in everyway no matter what trades we all choose! They are looking after all the dosssers entering the country
That’s shocking for me to hear because I thought things were radically different from woke broken no merit no standards USA and I am what’s known as a dinosaur in this backwards reverse engineered demonic party owned BAC UNIONS ( and others) and I was forced into early retirement because I don’t mix well with the special needs kids slow kids as you proper ones call them and also the English have perfectly named the bricklayer trade and all trades in democrat owned Union USA where they love you when you’re handicapped ( mentally physically spiritually) and they cater to the masses of clueless no trade no skills and now Mexicos rejects but I didn’t know that politics could effect the trades there with all the culture this country has none of
where's all these new homes going too/? bricklayers should be asking the question... imagine being the ones throwing them up and not even being able to afford to get on the ladder yourself.... its a pxxs take....
Learn something new every day. I never knew that about cement wall design back then. Looks like the brick work's out of gauge between each arch. Different depth cuts on the top course but look the same point at the bottom.
It boils my piss when you hear about all these nhbc inspectors making up rules about wall ties, trays, weep holes every 2 bricks when it was every 4, wall ties upside down, pointing inside cavity’s 😂regs on pir Inso that is shit and godknows what else. They make up rules. Like you said in your other video it does need to be governed but why can’t it be governed by a building inspector? And another thing😆 building inspectors should have to do an apprenticeship in a trade before coming an inspector just to ground them. You wouldn’t get to be a sergeant major if you wasn’t a private in the first place would you🤷🏻♂️ probably wrong terminology but you get my gist. The game is backwards as fuck and it’s getting harder.
Another thing😂 why aren’t the older generations of bricklayers who can’t carry on doing bricklaying not been nhbc inspectors? It should be you just transition into that role as you get older. Rather than some office boy who’s in his 20’s telling a veteran how to do there job🤣 rant over 😂
I bet the windows had decorative external reveal panelling or louvres and the brickwork had to be set to them, as they were a feature, knocking out the brick gauge.
You've got your work cut out for yourself trying to convince a client/builder to listen to you. That's another reason I'm sick of this job (I'm 61 btw) Did some lime pointing on Friday. I hate it but it's what people want. I did it by the book. Finished half the job. I got back there today to finish the other half and over the weekend the client went over what I did with an ironing tool. He told me that's how he wants me to do the last half of the work cos he don't like the flush finish. I did as I was told and at the end of the day he asked me if I had a stiff brush .... He complained that you can't see the aggregate in the joints. LMFAO. I got in the van sharpish.
Yea fkin idiot customers, that's why I always do test panels and let them agree on it, photo it and leave it there until the end when I have been paid.
I've seen some of these "celebrity" bricklayers spouting off about arches working them out by maths 🤯 and with an even number of bricks 🤯and a centre rough cut out of polystyrene 🤯 what happened to dividers absolute dogs dinner 🙈
I remember the centres at vauxhall college all wood no ply even for the niches the carpenter 3/4 apprentices used to make them as part of their coursework arch is only as good as its turning piece vauxhall used to have workshop's for bricklaying plastering and a fibrous shop asphalting Street masonry carpentry painting and decorating roofing and tiling wall and floor tiling plumbing and including lead think they had glazing aswell closed 82 and they say what happened to all the tradesmen vauxhall won 2 gold medals in the skill Olympics about 77 in Korea in bricklaying and plastering...
comments that dont like what you say ,are the ones that will be in trouble when they are your age,if they are luckily enough to get that old without some one having to wipe their arse and put them to bed........
College training has been dumbed down, CITB fees do not go directly to the CITB, the money goes to the government, then the CITB has claim for it. Most money now go to these colleges that cater for so called full time courses for school leaves not fit to stay on until 18, they do these courses and think they are skilled. The big developers, corporations pay the most money, and dictate what they require for the industry. Basically half brick stretcher wall , block cavity with window detail is all that’s required. Day release is now just 2 year course. No 9 inch brickwork, no decorative brickwork or different bonding, no arches flying buttresses etc. 😢. Then you wonder about the standard of work being turned out. Government and training board think any dummy can be a bricklayer, so that’s what we get. Glad to be out of it.
I went has a Lorry Macanic, but I left years ago, No spanners any more just a laptop, so left the job, anyway I lernt off my Dad in the early 70s W/W, and A/F sizes,
Andy I have seen a lot of your videos and follow a lot of the youtube brickies. Honestly in my opinion ( for which is valid as I have signed them off) aint worth a toss. The whole NVQ bricklayer course is worthless in my book, bring back city and guilds
Someone will underprice you on the arches & bang a prefab arch in, undermining all the practical skill and knowledge you have, sign of the times, the building trades gone backwards, just look at old architecture.sad times.😢
![Lp. Сердце Вселенной #60 РОЖДЕНИЕ ЛОЛОЛОШКИ [Финал] • Майнкрафт](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/YoR0pAV9FVQ/mqdefault.jpg)
Hello fella. I started as an apprentice bricklayer in 1976 with my dad at Barratts. Like you I did mainly hod carrying for the first few months, also bucket handle pointing. Back then they really were old bucket handles. No jointing marshall town tools to buy from b and q 😂 It's been a hard working life, some times almost torture in footings in the winter months. I always loved snek and jumper, and random rubble stone work the best. Being a bricklayer, mason , can be very rewarding at the end of a week's work. Knowing auwer work could still be standing in hundreds of years time..😔😊
Don't often take a second look at these channels, most of the guys hosting them haven't a clue. You know what you are talking about for sure. I go back to the days of brick inside walls and fishtail ties when air movement inside the cavity was okay. We covered down the top of the cavity with bricks too. The first job apprentices and trainees got was backing up the inside walls. I know most of the stuff I was taught has long been discredited, But it gives a knowledge of how those building were constructed. I'm going to sub to your channel because even at the age of seventy five we can still learn and refresh stuff long forgotten and get a bit of insight into what's happening in the building trade right now.
Your observations on damp just shows the bollox of it all now days👏
Your knowledge of different aspects of building and restoration is second to none 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
I am new to your channel.
A big thumbs up from me and I have subscribed. It brings back some memories. Unfortunately, for me anyway not all good.
I did an apprenticeship in 1982. I was a coveted CITB apprentice. For me it was without doubt the worst mistake of my life but long since rectified without any regrets. A proper apprenticeship with college block release (Tottenham Tech) then 3 years day release. Egg-shaped sewers, arches axed and rough-ring, twisted piers, twisted crosses in the Advanced Craft. 40% was practical and 60% theory when on block release doing C&G craft. You name it we did it. We learned so much. We even did abseiling and rock-climbing in Michael Sobells sports Centre at Finsbury Park as part of it. PE on a Friday morning as a Brickwork Apprentice. Rat-trap, Diapers the lot. I almost got the coveted silver trowel getting 2 Distinctions and a Credit in the advanced craft. Starting smoking and my first wife were the other 2 big mistakes. 30 years away from the trowel and industry as a 'living' now. Horses for courses and all that. 2 questions for anyone who cares to put their tuppence ha'penny in.
Honest answers please.
1. If you had your time over again with the benefit of experience would you be on the trowel. Or any other trade for that matter.
2. I only have a daughter but for those that have sons would you push them towards the trade or swerve them well away from it.
Sorry for the long comment (response) where in some parts it may sound like a tirade. It's not. We all have different experiences etc. I personally found the construction industry to be completely awful and a total snore-fest but it obviously formed my early work-life. My answers to the questions will be quite obvious.
We probably met as kids. I started at Tottenham in '80 so was 2 years ahead of you. I did all the same things you mentioned, loved every minute of it. I was actually lucky enough to get a Silver Trowel. 3 In my class that year, mostly down to 'Geoff Stokes' , was that the Tutors name?
(And I built one of those egg shaped sewers lol)
1) Yes I'd still be a brickie but I'd have moved mountains to buy multiple properties so I could launch my trowel into the Thames at 40. If only we'd known.
2)Any child of mine becomes a trowel and their no longer a child of mine 😁
@@SilverTrowel631Yep. Geoff Stokes from Yorkshire. He was my main lecturer from 82-85. My letdown on the silver trowel was I didn't attend towards the end as I went self employed at 18 and a half paying for my own Advanced Craft. Got two dists on the written papers and a Cred for course work. Fortunately I've not been near a site for 30+ years. Very very rare now that I lay a brick and only ever on my own property. The other lecturers there were Hicks, Roberts and Bunting.
I worked with loads of Bricklayers older than me who came out of Tottenham Tech , when did it close? 90s
Tottenham Tech still exists but has been through various mergers, name changes etc. It became CONEL (College of North East London) then CHENEL, I think after merging with Haringey College and Enfield College on Hertford Road. Whether they still have a Brickwork Dept I have no clue. It would never now be as in depth as it was in the 80s. Stretcher bond and more stretcher bond possibly followed by stretcher bond as you say on square boxes. Mind numbing.
@@bricklayersworldwithandy6277 It's still a college but I don't think they do building anymore. Not since the demise of the CITB. Yeah, probably 90's.
The place was in a lot of demand. They could have trebled their intake if they had the room. But they taught every trade. We built a house out back every year, all the trades got involved and we knocked it down when it was finished. Happy days.
Irish brickie here in East Coast USA , been at it since 1982, couple years in london , Australia, done the subbie thing had 15 guys at one time, loss almost every thing to taxman barely kept my house,any mostly apprentice s . Any body who gets into this trade is a fool . I am 58 working since 16 , nothing but hard ship . But it pays the bills too late to change. Young people find another profession before it's too late.
Started laying bricks soon after school and hod carried, totally agree about learning running to the line as in them days all footings were common or fletons, great way to get the knack of laying,
Waiting for you to join ukip 😂 jokes aside. Brilliant video yesterday Andy, certainly opened my eyes. I've been in the game 20+ yrs. On price, doing OK but private pension. Lol My Mrs is a teacher and we've got 2 children. Pension is a pipe dream. I'll work till I'm dead. I'll have too
I watched it.. very good video.. was thinking about it today, getting drowned building inside walls in Ireland today.. In the game 30 years.. keep up the good work
I remember cavity laths. Must be old. 😊
I commented on your last post Andy it a pleasure listening to you common sense .like listening to the lads i served my time with in the mid eighties unfortunately you don’t here bricklayers with this sort of knowledge no more me included to many years site bashing in my case I guess 👍ps I remember replaying the old steel wall ties that had blown the face bricks rusting at a old school play write Alan ackboure bought looking over Scarborough bay in North Yorkshire it was bloody freezing 🥶
Take care pal your one of the last old school great british brickies, the uk is failing in everyway no matter what trades we all choose! They are looking after all the dosssers entering the country
That’s shocking for me to hear because I thought things were radically different from woke broken no merit no standards USA and I am what’s known as a dinosaur in this backwards reverse engineered demonic party owned BAC UNIONS ( and others) and I was forced into early retirement because I don’t mix well with the special needs kids slow kids as you proper ones call them and also the English have perfectly named the bricklayer trade and all trades in democrat owned Union USA where they love you when you’re handicapped ( mentally physically spiritually) and they cater to the masses of clueless no trade no skills and now Mexicos rejects but I didn’t know that politics could effect the trades there with all the culture this country has none of
funny how you forgot to mention the dossers who were born here.
@aliones you don't see them in luxury hotels and driving luxury cars do you, they are homeless mostly
where's all these new homes going too/? bricklayers should be asking the question... imagine being the ones throwing them up and not even being able to afford to get on the ladder yourself.... its a pxxs take....
@OutofPlumb-ic5pl why i left the trade its corrupted mate
Learn something new every day. I never knew that about cement wall design back then.
Looks like the brick work's out of gauge between each arch. Different depth cuts on the top course but look the same point at the bottom.
someone got the reds wrong size, so they went with them and adjusted around them.... that's my take.
@@OutofPlumb-ic5pl Either that or the windows were ordered before the build started.
At last, someone myth busting about sand and cement builds. We've used cement since the 1850's.
It boils my piss when you hear about all these nhbc inspectors making up rules about wall ties, trays, weep holes every 2 bricks when it was every 4, wall ties upside down, pointing inside cavity’s 😂regs on pir Inso that is shit and godknows what else. They make up rules. Like you said in your other video it does need to be governed but why can’t it be governed by a building inspector?
And another thing😆 building inspectors should have to do an apprenticeship in a trade before coming an inspector just to ground them.
You wouldn’t get to be a sergeant major if you wasn’t a private in the first place would you🤷🏻♂️ probably wrong terminology but you get my gist.
The game is backwards as fuck and it’s getting harder.
Another thing😂 why aren’t the older generations of bricklayers who can’t carry on doing bricklaying not been nhbc inspectors? It should be you just transition into that role as you get older. Rather than some office boy who’s in his 20’s telling a veteran how to do there job🤣 rant over 😂
Great knowledge as always Andy 👍🇬🇧🍻
I bet the windows had decorative external reveal panelling or louvres and the brickwork had to be set to them, as they were a feature, knocking out the brick gauge.
Yea maybe, that's why the lead was there possibly 👍
@ do you think it’s possible to remove the split course about the arch and shunt the arch up so it’s level with the gauge then do the repairs ?
40 years ago you idea of part training trades was tried.
I was on a job where the plumber connected gas up to the water system
Breathable, as in it allows for air to flow through
No, breathable is a word a lot of people use with solid walls and it's not correct.
@ sorry correction to what I said.. not air to flow through but moisture as lime mortar is porous and then it evaporates on the surface
@@Devon-Harveyyes
Used to be called cement fondue..
🧱 ... 👍
What you are suggesting regarding learner bricklayers will lower the rate of new house build
So will importing cheap foreign labour.
You've got your work cut out for yourself trying to convince a client/builder to listen to you. That's another reason I'm sick of this job (I'm 61 btw)
Did some lime pointing on Friday. I hate it but it's what people want. I did it by the book. Finished half the job.
I got back there today to finish the other half and over the weekend the client went over what I did with an ironing tool. He told me that's how he wants me to do the last half of the work cos he don't like the flush finish. I did as I was told and at the end of the day he asked me if I had a stiff brush .... He complained that you can't see the aggregate in the joints. LMFAO.
I got in the van sharpish.
Rather you than me😅
@@maxpower1797 Aint got a stiff brush I could borrow have ya mate? -)
Yea fkin idiot customers, that's why I always do test panels and let them agree on it, photo it and leave it there until the end when I have been paid.
@@SilverTrowel631 use your churn brush 😆 🤣
Big job breaking out Andy 🧱👍🏽
I've seen some of these "celebrity" bricklayers spouting off about arches working them out by maths 🤯 and with an even number of bricks 🤯and a centre rough cut out of polystyrene 🤯 what happened to dividers absolute dogs dinner 🙈
I use timber centres and dividers👍
@@bricklayersworldwithandy6277 only a straight joint in gothic arches drop equilateral or lancet 👍
I remember the centres at vauxhall college all wood no ply even for the niches the carpenter 3/4 apprentices used to make them as part of their coursework arch is only as good as its turning piece vauxhall used to have workshop's for bricklaying plastering and a fibrous shop asphalting Street masonry carpentry painting and decorating roofing and tiling wall and floor tiling plumbing and including lead think they had glazing aswell closed 82 and they say what happened to all the tradesmen vauxhall won 2 gold medals in the skill Olympics about 77 in Korea in bricklaying and plastering...
You've got a bit of graft there repointing and doing them arches.
Yep😊
comments that dont like what you say ,are the ones that will be in trouble when they are your age,if they are luckily enough to get that old without some one having to wipe their arse and put them to bed........
the building and engineering industry is screwed. Most youngsters don't want hard work now.
College training has been dumbed down, CITB fees do not go directly to the CITB, the money goes to the government, then the CITB has claim for it. Most money now go to these colleges that cater for so called full time courses for school leaves not fit to stay on until 18, they do these courses and think they are skilled. The big developers, corporations pay the most money, and dictate what they require for the industry. Basically half brick stretcher wall , block cavity with window detail is all that’s required. Day release is now just 2 year course. No 9 inch brickwork, no decorative brickwork or different bonding, no arches flying buttresses etc. 😢. Then you wonder about the standard of work being turned out. Government and training board think any dummy can be a bricklayer, so that’s what we get. Glad to be out of it.
I went has a Lorry Macanic, but I left years ago, No spanners any more just a laptop, so left the job, anyway I lernt off my Dad in the early 70s W/W, and A/F sizes,
Andy I have seen a lot of your videos and follow a lot of the youtube brickies. Honestly in my opinion ( for which is valid as I have signed them off) aint worth a toss. The whole NVQ bricklayer course is worthless in my book, bring back city and guilds
i actually had to apply to have my city and guilds qualification added to my cscs card????
Someone will underprice you on the arches & bang a prefab arch in, undermining all the practical skill and knowledge you have, sign of the times, the building trades gone backwards, just look at old architecture.sad times.😢
@@MrG8260 Get what you are saying mate but I found out someone else came in with a price of 6k per arch so I think we are safe 👍
I'm sure you'll make it look mint 👌. Look forward to the video. Merry Xmas m8 have a good one. 💙👍
@@MrG8260 You to👍