Saw a crew on 5th street doing soldier courses over a curved wall, I had to stop and watch

They were bending the line like it was nothing, took me back to that patio job in Portland where I fought a radius for 6 hours and still ended up with gaps. Does anyone else ever just pull over to stare at someone else's brickwork and feel both impressed and a little embarrassed?

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the_lee26d ago

Man, that hits hard! I had the same thing happen on a garden wall a few years back. My trick after that disaster was to lay out the whole course dry first, even on the curve, and mark every brick with a number. Sounds slow, but it saved my sanity. Also, I started cutting the soldier units a hair longer than needed, like a quarter inch, so I could tap them into place and fine tune the gaps as I went. Watching those pros make it look easy still stings a little, but at least now I know the secret is all in the prep.