Expectations placed on a commercial brick layer
Large commercial projects with a big portion of the construction budget assigned to bricklaying impose very stringent workmanship demands on the brick layer. The investors desire the brick work to not only last long, but the visual aspects of the work must be appealing and compatible with the utility of the structures they constitute.
Locations
A commercial bricklayer will be required to work in all areas that the clients choose to have bricks laid. Depending on tastes and original building plans, the client may request the bricklayers to build both external and internal walls with bricks. Besides walls, the client may want their walkways and other outdoor ground features to be laid with bricks. These include pavements and trimmings. Note that the brick layer will work both on the outside as well as the inside of a structure, and the project timeline will require bricklaying to be undertaken in all weather conditions
Artistry
Awareness of available artistic designs and principles is required of every commercial bricklayer. This enables them to effectively perform decorative brick work that endures as well as pleases the client. Commercial clients can contract bricklayers to augment ready-made stone walls with an intricate layer of brickwork. An example is the laying of bricks on mantelpieces and fireplaces where the bricks are not a functional part of the structure. In most cases, artistic design will also be included in the base structure. This requires that the bricklayers doing decorative brickwork designs be acquainted with the basics of masonry so as to ensure structural integrity.
Duties
Unlike general masonry, project foremen do not supervise or direct commercial bricklaying worker one-on-one. It is up to the bricklayers to use their understanding of building principles to translate the information on the given drawings in to the actual brickwork. To start off, the bricklayers will measure out the workspace and mark it accordingly. Using the dimensions of individual bricks, they will then calculate the number of bricks required. As bricklaying exercises will generate waste pieces due to intentional resizing and accidental breakage, the estimate forwarded to the project managers will allow a margin of extra bricks. Likewise, they decide the amount of cement and sand.
Skills
The returns gained by commercial bricklaying are commensurate with the quality of brickwork. As an example, a client will pay a normal sum for the construction of a plain brick wall and a higher sum for a wall with complex designs. Plain brick walls are built of uniform rectangular bricks laid down in uniform horizontal courses, while complex brick walls use all manners of brick shapes laid down in precise artistic configurations. The bricklayer is thus required to continually research the brick laying domain for new trends and themes. In doing this, the bricklayer is better positioned to meet the various special needs of commercial clients.