That time I saw a crew buttering every frog-end on a brick wall

I was walking past a job site downtown last Tuesday and stopped to watch a crew laying a garden wall. Every single brick they picked up, they buttered the frog-end with mortar. I stood there for a good 10 minutes counting, and they did that on about 40 bricks in a row. Why would you do that on a garden wall that's only 3 feet tall and not load-bearing? That's just wasted time and material. I've been laying brick for 12 years and I only butter frogs on structural walls or when I'm building a pillar. Doesn't the extra mortar just squeeze out and make a mess you gotta clean up later? Has anyone else noticed newer guys doing this all the time or am I the one who's wrong here?

3 comments

3 Comments

phoenixa642mo ago

And here's what gets me - if that extra mortar is squeezing out the backside of the brick, you've just created a bigger cleanup job once it dries. I've watched guys spend more time scraping dried mortar off the face of the wall than they did laying the bricks in the first place. Does your crew have a reason for doing it, or are they just following what they saw on some YouTube tutorial?

finleycooper2mo ago

Nah, the cleanup is from the front, not the back. Back doesn't need scraping.

tyler49214d ago

Man @phoenixa64 you just blew my mind with that backside cleanup point. I NEVER thought about it that way - if the extra mortar is squeezing out the BACK of the wall instead of the front, that's actually WORSE because you gotta walk around to scrape it or leave it looking like garbage. Those guys buttering every frog on a 3 foot garden wall must be spending half their day cleaning up their own mess. I counted 40 bricks in 10 minutes too and that's way too slow for a simple wall. That extra mortar is just gonna crack and fall off anyway once it dries, so what's the POINT. Total waste of time and material if you ask me.