Had a chat with an old mason last week that changed how I lay brick

I was working a job in downtown Raleigh and an old timer came by to check out my work. He told me I was rushing my butter joints and that slowing down would save me time in the long run. At first I thought he was just being picky, but I tried his method on the next wall and it came out way cleaner. Made me realize I'd been skipping the little things to get done faster and it was hurting the finish. Anybody else had an older guy give you advice that actually stuck?

2 comments

2 Comments

christopher_craig3d ago

That "slowing down saves time" thing sounds backwards but it's really not. Most guys rush because they think speed equals money but they don't account for all the time they waste fixing mistakes later.

grayperez3d ago

See the thing is, you're mostly right but you're skipping over the part where experience actually teaches you what to rush and what not to. I've been doing this long enough to know which steps I can push through and which ones I need to take my time on. Guys who haven't figured that out yet just treat everything the same way, so they either go too fast on the stuff that matters or too slow on the stuff that doesn't. Once you learn the job, you learn the shortcuts that actually work and the ones that will screw you over. That's the real skill, not just slowing down for everything.