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SOME ASSEMBLY REQUIRED – The Hands-On Handbook 4 5 6


Make a soaker. Create your own spray bottle by poking a hole in the top of a water bottle, then spray a small amount of water into each void to moisten it.


Make it gleam. Continue wetting the brick. The goal is to get the entire area of brick you are working on damp—but not dripping wet.


Create the mix. Use a high quality mason’s mortar mix. Mix it so that the slake does not collapse—about the consistency of mashed potatoes. Allow the mix 7 minutes to slake, making only as much mortar as you can use in 30 minutes— typically about half of a one-gallon paint pail.


7 8 9


Fill voids. Put your mortar board next to the brick and begin pushing mortar into voids, beginning with the horizontal cavities.


10


Wedge it. Use the thin trowel to push mortar into the vertical voids, making sure they are completely full.


Remove excess. Use the squeegee to scrape away the excess mortar. Note that this may require a couple of passes.


11


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Clean the brick face. To remove the fi rst layer of haze from the brick, a stiff plastic brush will do the trick. Don’t scrub the mortar joints. You’ll be smoothing those in the next step.


Tap and drag. A chisel handle works well for this. As you drag the tool along each joint, tap it lightly against the mortar, making the joint slightly concave.


Project/original text courtesy of Michael Johnson


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