How to Install a Brick Cornice

Mixing the Mortar

• 1

  Pour 6 inches of water to the bucket, using the ruler. Pour half of the premixed mortar into the bucket.

• 2

  Attach the mixing paddle to the drill and insert the paddle into the bucket.

• 3

  Turn the drill on for 2 seconds and turn it off. Repeat this until the mortar mix and water are combined. Turn the drill on again, leaving it on longer to thoroughly mix the mixture. Check to see if the mortar has the consistency of toothpaste. Add more water and mix it in with the paddle, if needed.

Cornice

• 4

  Set up the ladder.

• 5

  Set up a row of bricks on the ground that alternate in a pattern of one brick with a long side facing you followed by one brick with a short end facing you.

• 6

  Apply a 1-inch-thick layer of mortar across the top of the first four bricks on the wall top the cornice is being added to, using the trowel.

• 7

  Mortar a short end of the first brick in the row and set it into the mortar on the wall with its mortared end facing the way the pattern will go. Press it down into the mortar so that some of the mortar it is set on squeezes out. Use the trowel to cut off the excess mortar.

• 8

  Mortar one-half of the next brick’s long side that will be facing the rest of the wall when set in place. The mortar will go on the half of the brick’s long side that is farthest away from you. Set this brick next to the first brick, with the short end that is farthest from you aligning with the back edge of the first brick.

• 9

  Continue applying the bricks in the pattern you set up, adding more mortar to the top of the wall as needed.

• 10

  Use the carpenter’s level to check to see if what you built is straight. Apply a straight row of bricks as when you built your wall and use the level again.

• 11

  Set up another row of bricks in the pattern you set up before. Apply these bricks to the top of the wall as before. Use the carpenter’s level again to check to see if what you built is straight.