THERE is something fascinating about laying bricks. To achieve an acceptable job is not really difficult. It requires patience and the mastery of a few professional tricks. Practice will develop real skill. There are many small scale jobs too insignificant for the professional mason but productive of real money for you.

Brick terraces and walks, low walls, outdoor fireplaces are all easy to make. Practice making them on your own home grounds not only to gain ease in handling the materials but in order to photograph them for display purposes when discussing the possibility of doing a brick job for someone else. There is no need to buy a load of bricks for this; look around for demolished buildings, burned out houses or abandoned brick yards. It is quite possible that you'll find a sufficient number of bricks in the rubble to experiment with.

There are two ways of laying bricks for walks and terraces — laid directly on the earth or sand, and laid on a bed of concrete with the seams between the bricks filled with concrete. Fireplaces, barbecues and walls, of course, require concrete bonding to hold the bricks in place.

The tools and materials for brick work include: bricks, new or used sand cement wood stakes and cord rake broom lumber for building forms level brick hammer mason's trowel shovel and hoe pail and hose mixing trough

If you have done concrete work, you probably have all of the above items except the bricks. These may be bought from building supply houses, if you prefer new to used ones.

While there are dozens of different styles and individually shaped bricks manufactured today, the brick we will work with is the common ordinary red clay brick that measures 8" (long) x 3 3/4" (wide) x 21/4" (thick). They can be bought in lots of any number, depending upon one's needs, at approximately five and one-half cents per brick. Used bricks, taken from old chimneys or wrecked houses, are frequently advertised for sale. They are much less expensive (from one to two cents a piece) and for the brick projects under discussion here, are to be preferred. Terraces and garden walls and walks especially are better looking when made of used bricks. Their weathered colors blend with their surroundings more beautifully than does the raw hard color of new ones. When buying used bricks be sure to specify "cleaned" ones, which means that the old mortar has been knocked off them.

Look for jobs being done in your neighborhood by expert masons. Watch them as they work. See how rhythmic are their motions. After a little while you will begin to see how their movements make the work flow along easily and accurately. In the meantime, here are a few pointers that will help you gain skill! 1.Hold the trowel in the hand so that its weight is balanced and does not cause muscular strain. The butt of the wood handle should rest lightly but firmly in the heel of the palm, and the forefinger and thumb should hold the ferrule of the handle.

2. Pick up the mortar with a scooping motion brought towards the body. At the end of the scoop give the wrist a slight snap to set and hold the mortar in place. This keeps it from sliding off the trowel while carrying it.

3. Placing the mortar on the bricks is called "throwing." Actually, the mortar is slid off the trowel so that it lies heaped along the center space upon which the brick is to be laid. It takes a little practice to learn just exactly how much mortar to pick up and throw to make the bed joints work out evenly. Naturally, after it is thrown it must be spread and evened so that the bricks will lie firmly and fully cushioned in the mortar. This is done with the edge of the trowel. Tap the edge of the trowel along the center of the line of thrown mortar, keeping the taps short and sharp. This works the heaped mortar out towards the outside edges, thus evening it to form a complete bed for each brick.

4. Excess mortar squeezed out of the seams or joints when the brick is tapped into position should be cut off, not scraped off. Hold the trowel at an acute angle to the face of the bricks and actually cut off the excess. Scraping it off tends to smear cement along the face of the brick, thus producing a poor and amateurish piece of work. In some cases, low garden walls, for instance, the squeezed out mortar may be left alone. This gives a rustic look which some clients may like.

Below are some of the terms you may hear professionals use, together with their meanings.

Brick Walks Are Easy To Make

The old-fashioned method of laying brick walks directly in the earth or sand is still one of the most attractive for gardens. This is the dry method which needs no mortar to hold the bricks together. When carefully laid, these brick paths will last for years.

After the general plan of the walk or path has been decided upon (is it to be straight or curved?), mark off the edges with stakes and cord. A garden hose will be useful in getting gentle and pleasant curves for a wandering walk. Lay the hose on the ground and push it into the desired curves. Leave it in that position until the stakes and cords are placed to guide the final run of the bricks. Guide lines are definitely necessary to produce a professional looking job.