Stumbled on a stat that blew my mind about old brick arches

Was reading some old trade journal from 1947 I found at a salvage yard last weekend, and it said that a skilled bricklayer back then could lay about 600 bricks a day for a standard wall. But for a complex arch with centering and wedges, that number dropped to maybe 80 bricks a day. I always figured arches just took longer, but I didn't realize it was nearly a 7x difference in output. Has anyone else come across old numbers like that from back in the day?

3 comments

3 Comments

olivia_murphy25d ago

Oh MAN that is wild. It really puts into perspective how much skill and time those old arches actually took - most people just see the pretty end result and have no clue about the labor behind it.

ericgonzalez25d ago

I mean, idk, maybe the labor is part of what makes the end result so impressive to begin with.

charles6785d ago

Read somewhere that those old arches used a wooden frame underneath while they set the stones. The skill involved is insane, @olivia_murphy.