When laying block, better than string for straightness

Seems like alot of work would it not be easier to buy two cheap laser pointers mount two to form a 90 deg angle, one pointing down one pointing in the direction of the row of bricks. Mark the ground so the pointers are in the same location on the first brick and line the bricks up against the lightr pointing down the row you could even mount a bubble level on them to make sure it's level

Actually long 2 X 4 works even better than steel pipes.

No, what I am trying to achieve is a quick way to know that all the block or brick in a row are in a perfect line. And where the string method relies on eyeball judgement is bad. And so will the laser.

A long straight wood board down the line of a row of block where you touch the block to the board and you know you are on that perfect line.

Arch, If you're actually doing the block work yourself, 'buttering` the block, dropping it in place, tapping it level and plumb with your trowel, you know that your mortar joint should be between 3, and 5 sixteenths of an inch thick. With an eighth of an inch to play with, 'Perfect` is a big waist of your time and effort, and any solid batterboard you try to use will just get in your way and slow you down even more. This is demonstrated by the fact that you've apparently laid only one course of block in a day. If you're an amateur, merely staying within tolerances will be hard enough. Just use the proven method and get on with it. More than one project has been 're-thought` to death. Best of luck - Pragmatist -"Use a bigger hammer"

The string method is the absolute best way to make garages. Since that's the way you make garages that aren't made out of concrete blocks.

If you building a prison, the pipe method is preferred.

So what I did was haul out two very long and stout

Sorry you can't do it. To get perfect vertical lines, you need a plumb bob, which use strings.

Doing it myself in order to learn and improve the task. This industry has never been wholescale improved and that is where I can do the most good.

For example, the old true and tested way is to use string and to slop alot of mortar to build the building. Cement is never going to get cheaper and abundant because fusion energy is never coming. So cement is going to become as rare and valuable as is petroleum.

Instead of using a trowel to place cement I believe in using the fingers. Not because I am an amateur bricklayer but because I need to find the method that saves every precious piece of Portland cement.

Of course using latex gloves and not exposed skin.

For placement of mortar for the vertical joints that is easy. For the horizontal joints is a little bit more tricky. What I do is get a 3/8 steel rebar and wire connect it to the vertical rebar and then rest the next course with its *inner edge* onto the rebar. Thus I have a uniform horizontal guide. Then with the latex-glove, never a trowel, I fill in the gaps and with a pointer I then solidly compact the joint.

No matter how great one gets at a troweling method they lose and slop too much and waste too much cement.

In my method, which is the method of the future as oil prices rise so does cement. In my method, although painstakingly longer is perhaps the ultimate method of laying brick and block.

Archimedes Plutonium, a snipped-for-privacy@hotmail.com whole entire Universe is just one big atom where dots of the electron-dot-cloud are galaxies

In the old method, mortar had to be a mix of lime for consistency in order to make the mix pliable to use a troweling method. So that a standard mortal mix would be something like 1 part mortar-cement which is

In my method we dispense with ever using any lime. We go straight with a concrete type mix without aggregates because we simply use latex gloves finger in the mortar into the joints.

In the future as oil prices become very high, and cement becomes very high, the luxury of using lime and wasting alot of mortar is a luxury not in the future.

Archimedes Plutonium, a snipped-for-privacy@hotmail.com whole entire Universe is just one big atom where dots of the electron-dot-cloud are galaxies

ZZBunker wrote: (snipped)

That is a very silly and stupid device to be using for concrete and brick wall building. I say that because a fixed stick or rod is a faster means of telling the accuracy of vertical lines than a plumb bob setup. Just picture the time wasted in setting up that plumb bob when a fixed stick or rod and determine the vertical accuracy in a split second.

My method does use a level to check upon things. But other than a level, the accuracy of vertical lines and horizontal lines should always be that of *fixed sticks or rods* that are straight. And never on string things which rely upon a eyeball judgement.

Obviously the above has never done hands on building, just mouth chatter.

Archimedes Plutonium, a snipped-for-privacy@hotmail.com whole entire Universe is just one big atom where dots of the electron-dot-cloud are galaxies

That's why we who know what they are don't use them for making walls, are somehing stupid as concrete. We use them for making plumbs lines.

I say that because a fixed stick or rod is a faster means of telling the accuracy of vertical

I did'nt say anything about faster. I mentioned something about *vertical lines*, which is what your question was about.

Just picture the time wasted in setting up that plumb bob when a fixed

There are no such things as fixed sticks. Either you've been readng something about Einstein, or some first grade mathematicians curicculum. Either way is doesn't matter, since neither can actually build anything other than playground balls.

accuracy of vertical lines

They would make sense if a level wasn't just an amatuer plumb bob.

And never on string things which rely upon a eyeball judgement.

That's true. Those of us who actually know how to build walls, only design them. We let day laborers, such as yourself, build them.