Glad I'am not a brick layer

GPowers

GPowers

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Tiger-Stone is a Dutch paver laying machine that can produce brick roads.  Paving bricks are dropped by front-end-loader onto the angled trough.
Men help to spread them in the trough as they drop into the forming jig. As the electrically operated crawler moves forward along a pre laid sand base layer, all the stones are packed, gravity held together & descend the sloping ramp on to the road.
 
Being able to stand up straight would be a big plus, but I would hate to do that all day long. Way too much like work.
 
I was going to say I saw a few video's of that a while ago too but, Shane was all over it. [big grin]

We used to have a slip form box for pouring golf cart paths.  The golf course roughed out where the wanted the path's with a D-3.

the box went on the back of a tractor and was powered by the PTO.  There would be one truck on each side of the box pouring the concrete in it, a guy running the auger to even the crete out along with the vibrator.  He would mist it with water (it came out of the truck at about a 2 1/2" slump), one guy mopped it, one guy put a groove in it and then you broomed it off.  No forms needed.  We could do about 2 maybe 2 1/2 miles a day.
 
The title of the thread is a misnomer, that is not bricklayer work at all.

Those are not even bricks, they are Pavers.  :)

My papa raised 6 kids and many grand kids, me included.  Laying brick as a Union Bricklayer for 60 years paid the bills. He was small and later got a beer belly, but his hand shake could crush you, years of bricklaying made his hands strong as heck. Even though he was out of shape and had three heart attacks he lived to be 84. I think hard work contributed to that. He actually died from a fall at the home he was in, I still blame them. He could have lived many more years.
 
Yeah, my dad was a bricklayer too.  He later specialized in refractory brickwork and invented and manufactured a different type of bricklaying machine -- didn't pave roads or build walls, but rather lined the inside of rotary kilns that are used in the cement and paper industries.  His bricklaying machine was primarily built to offer a safer solution, but proved to also do a much better and faster job to boot. 

Many years ago I ripped out my concrete walkway thinking that I would replace it with a gently curved figure 'S' walk paved with brick pavers.  I told dad that I was going to lay a soldier course around the perimeter and then a herringbone pattern in the center that would follow the walk's curve.  He said that I couldn't curve a herringbone like that...  And later he was most proud of the job I had done, as it came out very nice.  So, while I curved a herringbone pattern up my walk, I am rather sure that that paving machine won't be so lucky in the curves.  [wink]
 
Not a professional, but I've done several patios, walks, garden walls, etc.  Man that is hard work!  Except for the occasional massive machine like the one shown by the OP and power mixers, brickwork is still done pretty much the way it was thousands of years ago - one by one with a trowel.  I love the mix of very careful, initial layout of the corners followed by laying the lines between as fast as you can go.  But as rough as bricklaying is, its the stonemasons that I really hold in awe.

BTW, I'm reading Bill Bryson's At Home, a history of housing in England.  Its his contention that multiple floor housing was made practical only by improvements in the quality of bricks, which allowed effective chimneys.  Before that hearths were vented pretty much by a hole in the roof and the air above head level was too smoky to breathe.  Great book, lots of interesting stuff like that.
 
Brick panel construction has had an impact on the trade, as you seldom see bricklayers putting up buildings anymore.  And you hardly ever see brick chimneys on new homes either.  Soon these trades may be a thing of the past.

While I am concerned about the future of bricklaying, I don't think they will blame this for taking work away from them:

Automated Bricklaying Robot

Just wait until they get that robot to sling mud too -- what a mess  [scared]
 
Bill Bryson's A Short History of Nearly Everything is also a good read.  [wink]
 
Wow!  that paver sure saves a heck of a lot of backache and sore knees.
next to concrete floors, i hated doing large, flat areas with brick.  Stone wasn't so bad as you had a chance to stand and walk around a little.  Brick, you just kept kneeling, placing and tapping into place.  Many were the days I could hardly stand by end of day.  I always tried to work those jobs in with other work.  Do the paving work in morning and then get onto the chimney, or whatever to finish the day.  Even when i had a crew working for me, i tried to lay out the work so nobody had to stay on the flat work for the full day.

That robot brick layer still leaves a lot to be desired. 

As an earlier responder noted, brick laying is still done pretty much the same way it was done 2000 years ago.  The improvements have been in the tools, methods for getting materials to the masons, improvements in mortar and the mixing methods and scaffolding construction and removal.  Also, brick manufacturing has certainly seen great improvement.  But the guy who is putting the bricks to their final resting place is still doing it much the same way.
Tinker
BTW:  Before I started doing masonry, I was 7 feet tall.  Now, my chin is close to bumping into my knee caps.  I quit just in time ::)
 
Corwin said:
Brick panel construction has had an impact on the trade, as you seldom see bricklayers putting up buildings anymore.  And you hardly ever see brick chimneys on new homes either.  Soon these trades may be a thing of the past.

While I am concerned about the future of bricklaying, I don't think they will blame this for taking work away from them:

Automated Bricklaying Robot

Just wait until they get that robot to sling mud too -- what a mess  [scared]
Click to expand...

lmao!!!
 
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