Bricky Tool

[stupidworld]

Anyone used one of these? Remember seeing one a while advertised on QVC or such, and in the demo it looked really good, but I never believe salemen's demos!

Still, now the time has come where I want to try my hand at building some lowish retaining walls in the garden, haven't done any (visible) brickwork before and I think I might give the Bricky Tool a go, but looking at the photos of one in action I'm not sure if it would suitable for the walls I'm going to build, basically concrete block inner course with facing brick outer, tied together and obviously with no cavity.

Looks like the tool is only useful for a single course or where there's a cavity. Has anyone got one of these and can tell me if it would be suitable for building retaining walls as I've described ?

[[news]]

I saw a demo at a house builders expo, it looked really easy to use but I couldn't help thinking I could source some plastic and make one for a lot less than the £45 the chap was selling them for.

RT

[stupidworld]

It's a bit steep for a bit of plastic. They're available for about £28 inc p+p on ebay, still expensive but if it does the job I'm OK with it - only problem looks like being the edge that sits in the cavity will get in the way of the other course of my retaining wall - £28 would be expensive for a bit of plastic I couldnt use for the job!!!

I guess I could build the outer skin with the ties sticking out, then lay the conc blocks inside afterwards, without the tool cos they don't have to be neat and i can just lean them up against the bricks. Do I even need to use wall ties for a retaining wall, around 3ft tall?

[EricP]

It's a brilliant tool provided you want the exact thickness of mortar it provides, anything under or over and you are sunk.

Also you can cake an equivalent from two lengths of batten the required thickness and braced with cross pieces for a pound and bin it when it's finished.

The procedure is simply to provide two straight edges the required distance apart and the right thickness for the thickness of mortar.

You also have to lay the first course of mortar and bricks by eye. A bricklayer friend said if you can do that, you can build the rest of the wall as well.

[Lobster]

Heard of Google at all...........?

(or David

[[news]]

that was about 2-3 years ago

RT

[stupidworld]

>> David

Ever heard of the possibility that someone might not be able to find the answer to their particular question via Google at all?

Thanks, but if you check out the site/those posts, as I did before my original posting, you'll see that there is no obvious answer to my question. In fact a similar question was asked in one of the threads but never answered, i.e. how does it cope with wall ties/cavity batts etc

So yes, thanks, I have heard of Google. ;-)

[stupidworld]

Hmm yes. The wall I'm building will at one point meet up with the house, so if the mortar joint sizes dont match what the tool does then it's not going to look good!

A good point also! I'm going to have to do a bit of practice laying with some wet sand first so perhaps I'll try a home made one first. The thing that most attracted me to them was that whenever I've laid bricks in the past, i always seem to get mortar everywhere and it looks a right mess. Using a guide should help avoid this (well it did on the telly!! )

[Jason]

[Jason]

[The Natural Philosopher]

Dione just such a wall, and all you ned is a spirit level, some string, and off you go.

If you set the string up with a brick on each ened of what you kust laid, and check it for level with teh level...then lay the bricks to it, all you have to do is check its vertical with the spirit level.

[tony sayer]

In article , stupidworld writes

I bought one second-hand from a contributor 'ereon but its been out in the shed the last year or so waiting for the get around tuits to get the thing built. Lack of time and loot are holding it up, the project that is, the bricky tool is fine, except unused;)....

[Lobster]

Ok, fair cop; but looking at the device it's pretty obviously only going to work on a single-skin or cavity wall, innit??

David

[stupidworld]

Yeah, I was just hoping that I was somehow missing something and there was a way to use it. I guess I've now got two options:

1. Use it to build a nice, level, clean outer skin, with the ties sticking out, then build the inner skin against the outer skin
2. Have more faith in my ability, spend a bit of extra time practicing and do it the time-honoured way!

Cheers

[Rick]

If you have wall ties, or cured walls, or full fill insulation, then forget it.

Rick