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Don Valley Brick Works

by ERA Architects

Wednesday morning’s design forum took a slightly different approach this week. The ERA team went on a field trip down to the Don Valley Brick Works, a site ERA has been working on since 2002, to meet up with the George Brown Masonry students. ERA has been performing site review to the masonry students who are in the second year of their Building Restoration Technician Program.

Professor John Jensen, an experienced heritage mason, provided us with a hands-on demonstration of various types of mortar batching including: lime putty and sand; hydrated lime, sand and water; and a pre-bagged Dubois mix which has hydraulic lime. Each mortar has it’s own unique characteristics, and we were able to explore each in turn. Once we had the mortar batched, everyone took a turn at pointing a mock-up wall.

The hands-on experience gave everyone a taste at the work involved in providing specific pointing profiles and techniques, as well a better understanding of the tools, techniques and craft of fine masonry.

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