Am I the only one who found out I was buttering my head joints the wrong way after 9 years?

Robin Palmer · 2026-10-01T21:50:03.924304+00:00

So last Tuesday I'm on a house in Gary, Indiana, laying a fireplace surround, and this older guy named Dale who I've worked with maybe twice stops and just watches me butter a brick. After a minute he goes 'you're putting the mortar on the wrong side of that unit.' I laughed it off because I've been laying for 9 years and my walls pass inspection every time. But then he had me cut one open to check the bed depth and I about fell over. I'd been building up the back edge instead of keeping it even, so my mortar was only getting full contact on maybe half the brick. It never showed on the outside because I hid it with good joint work and kept my courses dead level. All those walls I was proud of, the bond was basically working half as hard as it should. Now I've got a 3 foot spirit level and a trowel in my hands and I keep second guessing my own wrist. How many of you had someone catch something like this years in, and what did it end up being?

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Am I the only one who found out I was buttering my head joints the wrong way after 9 years? | Bricklayers - Thought Shares