"whats the right way or best way to lay bricks?" Cheap restaurant, lots of wine, tell 'em you've got terminal cancer......
Frog up def better, as stated its stronger and you get more of a key between courses. Also drilling into bricks laid frog down you may hit a void as all the pug does not fill the frog void.... Does not save that much pug really and is easy to level courses as you have more surface area to work with........
Easier to lay frog down and uses slightly less mortar. Frog up is slightly stronger and no voids but more difficult to spread mortar faster. I challenge anyone who says that they can lay frog up as fast as frog down............ P.s. London brick issued a directive decades ago stating that frog down is absolutely fine and has no known problems for normal domestic brickwork on two storey work. So there
Brownie, Your first consideration should be the strength of the brickwork and if you think about it frog uppermost ensures no voids.
frog up is the right way, some bricks have a weather face, if layed frog down will cause problems later. frogs were formed to cheapen bricks, brickies lay em frog down if beds are tight to keep to gauge, but always frog up
was taught in brickie course that first course of bricks has to be layed with frog down for supporting the rest of brick wall....
Eh!?? During this hot weather we've built 2 houses using "old looking" frogged bricks. They've got that much suction there's no way you could lay 'em frog up or you couldn't keep to gauge. I suppose frog up would be stronger though especially with a deep frog. No frogged brick is as strong, as bricks with holes in though (they all "key" together)
Trust me, regardless of what is 'correct', the 'standard' way of laying them is frog down and thats from 25 years of site work and seen millions of em laid this way. Agree that a tiny proportion of frogged bricks have a 'weathered face' and must be laid the 'proper way'.
What a load of rubbish, this whole thread! Frogs/dogs down, my ****. How the hell can you level a brick properly like that(sitting on four edges of say ½") ? It's madness. And you cannot possibly knock the brick down and get the correct amount of squash-out for a clean joint. Flat bottom, makes sense. ***. Mr. HandyAndy - Really
i would have to disagree with the standard way of laying bricks is frog down, if building control ever see it, you would have to re-do it. i know we all do it to "grind" down now and again, but it is NOT the correct way of laying bricks, its actually a bit amaturish.
I've never built a wall, but I've chopped out a hell of a lot of holes, and I'd have put money on the frogs being down. I'll take more notice now