What tools do I need for bricklaying and pointing?

Bricklaying tools are cheap relative to what they do, and the two that genuinely matter are the level and the trowel. A bent or inaccurate level means a wall out of plumb you cannot correct afterwards, and a badly balanced trowel means you cannot pick up and spread mortar in one movement, which is the entire skill.

Step by step

1. Buy the level first and buy it well.It sets the accuracy of everything. Check any level you own by standing it on a surface, noting the bubble, then turning it end for end in the same place — the reading should be identical. If it is not, the level is wrong, not the wall.
2. Choose a trowel you can actually hold all day.Pick it up in the shop. A big blade carries more mortar and tires you out much faster. For occasional DIY, a shorter blade in the region of 10 inches is far more usable than a professional 13.
3. Make a gauge rod rather than buying one.Any straight batten longer than the wall is high, marked every 75mm from the top of the foundation. Mark it with the actual course height you are working to if the bricks are non-standard.
4. Get the mixing kit sorted.A large tub or a mixing board, a shovel, a gauging bucket and a barrow. The gauging bucket is the one that keeps your mix consistent between batches.
5. Match the jointing tool to the existing wall.For repointing, look at what profile is on the wall before buying anything. A bucket handle jointer will not produce a weatherstruck joint and vice versa.
6. Add safety kit as core equipment, not extras.Waterproof gauntlets, goggles, an FFP3 mask for any dry cutting, and knee protection. These are the items most often skipped and the ones with the most permanent consequences.
7. Clean everything before it goes off.Trowels and levels are cleaned in a bucket of water at the end of the session, not the next morning. A trowel with hardened mortar on it will never spread cleanly again, and mortar on a level will change what it reads.

Tips

• A brick trowel is used to cut and shape mortar as well as to carry it. Buying a good one and keeping the edge clean makes the whole job feel possible.
• Hire rather than buy the mixer, the breaker and anything you will use once. Buy the level, the trowel and the safety kit.
• A pointing hopper or gun looks like cheating and is genuinely useful on a large repointing job, but the mortar still has to be pressed home and tooled properly afterwards.
• Keep the level out of the mortar. It is a measuring instrument, and grit under it changes what it tells you.

Alternatives

• Brick trowel: The main tool: picks up, carries and spreads the bed. Sizes are quoted by blade length — a shorter blade is easier for a beginner and less tiring. London pattern has a rounded heel, Philadelphia is squarer. Handedness matters on some patterns, so check before buying.
• Pointing trowel: A small trowel for pressing mortar into a joint and for tidying. Bought in a couple of widths to suit the joint, and used with a hawk or a pointing hopper to carry the mortar to the joint.
• Spirit level: The most important tool on the list. A 1200mm level for walls, plus a 600mm for boxing in and small work. Buy a good one, check it for accuracy by reversing it end to end on the same surface, and never let it get dropped or left in the mortar.
• Line and pins, or corner blocks: A string line stretched between the built corners, held by steel pins driven into a joint or by plastic corner blocks that hook over the brickwork. Every brick between the corners is laid to the line.
• Gauge rod: A straight batten marked at 75mm intervals, stood against the work to keep every course at the right height. Home-made in five minutes and the thing that stops joints creeping thicker as a wall goes up.
• Club hammer, bolster and plugging chisel: The bolster cuts brick and block by hand — 25mm or 100mm depending on what you are cutting. The plugging chisel rakes out old mortar when repointing, far more slowly than a grinder and vastly less likely to damage the brick arrises. Eye protection every time.
• Jointing tools: A bucket handle or half-round jointer for a concave joint, a jointing iron or a chariot for a raked joint, a small pointing trowel for weatherstruck and flush. Match the tool to the profile the rest of the wall already has.
• Spot board, a soft brush and a bucket of clean water: The board holds working mortar at a sensible height near the work — mixing off the ground wrecks your back and gets grit in the mortar. The brush takes the face down as the joints firm, and the bucket cleans every tool before anything sets.