Watched a guy at the supply yard lay 200 bricks without a line and I had to eat my words

I used to be one of those guys who thought you absolutely needed a chalk line for every course. Three weeks ago at Builders Mart in Akron, I saw this older fella just eyeballing his work. He was putting up a garden wall and every course was dead straight. I asked him about it and he showed me his trick - he uses a level on the first course only, then just trusts his eye and keeps checking every 10 bricks with a straightedge. Tried it on a small retaining wall in my backyard last weekend. Worked way better than I thought. Has anyone else dropped the line on shorter walls?

2 comments

2 Comments

veram991mo ago

Seventy percent of skills are just trusting your gut more, I'm finding out.

felix1471mo agoTop Commenter

70 percent seems like a made up number but yeah I get the point.