Watched a crew in Tampa lay a brick wall without checking the level every third course...

They got almost four feet up before the whole thing started to lean, and we had to tear it down. My old boss in Chicago always said 'trust your eyes, but check your level' and it's saved me so much time. How often do you guys actually check your level on a straight run?

4 comments

4 Comments

umar492mo ago

Read a story in a trade magazine about a mason who swore by checking every single course on long runs. He said the human eye gets tricked by patterns after a while, so even a tiny error stacks up fast. His rule was to check the level and the plumb at each corner before moving on.

pat7812mo ago

My buddy did that on a garden wall last year. He was so sure it looked fine, ended up having to redo half of it. Now he checks every other course at least.

pat7812mo ago

That mason from the story is right about the eye getting tricked. You can stare at a line for so long it starts to look straight even when it's not. It's like when you're cutting a long board and you swear the pencil mark is good, but the saw proves you wrong. On a wall, a quarter-inch off on the first course is an inch off by the fourth. That's when you get that lean that you can't ignore.

sean_green441mo ago

My buddy's patio wall looked fine until it leaned like the Tower of Pisa, all from skipping the level check.