amyb54•7d ago

Shoutout to the guy who showed me how to stack corners right

I was working a garden wall in Austin last Tuesday and kept having my corners lean by the third course. An old mason neighbor came over and told me I was rushing my plumb checks and not buttering the perp joints enough. He showed me how to set two leads first and then fill between, and suddenly everything stayed straight. Anyone else have a simple fix like that totally change how you lay corners?

2 comments

2 Comments

grant.parker7d ago

The best solutions are almost always the boring ones. It's the same with anything that needs to be straight or true. You can try all the fancy little gadgets and tricks, but it comes down to the same basic thing. Set your foundation right, check your work twice, and don't skip the simple steps. I see people in my neighborhood try to fix a leaning fence with a new fancy post, but they never check if the ground is level first. Same with cooking, you can buy all the expensive pans, but if you don't prep your ingredients right you're just wasting time. The old guy was right, it's the fundamentals that save you.

charles_wilson7d ago

A plumb bob and a level changed everything for my stone path, kept it from wandering off.