Foreman said butter the bed joint, not the brick. Half my crew says he's wrong. Who's right?

Reese Craig · 2026-09-22T05:30:02.999239+00:00

So last Tuesday on a job in Tulsa my foreman watched me lay a course and said the mortar should go on the bed joint, never the brick itself, and he said it like it was a law of nature. I've been laying brick for 11 years and I was taught to butter the brick too, especially on headers, and it's never come back to bite me. Two guys on my crew agree with him, two guys agree with me, so now we've got a 2 to 2 split and a wall going up slower than it should. His main point was that buttering the brick wastes mortar and makes a mess of the face, mine is that a dry brick sucks the water out and the bond isn't as tight. What's your call on this, and does it change for a really thirsty brick vs a wet one?

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Foreman said butter the bed joint, not the brick. Half my crew says he's wrong. Who's right? | Bricklayers - Pinecone Attack