My view as a time served city & guilds advanced trade bricklayer .
Bricks vary in size.
A good tradesmen would only build a minimum of a one & a half or two brick wide pillar , if all sides ( faces) were on display . This allows you a mortar perpendicular (perps) joint between all the bricks & batts ( cut bricks ) ,so you can increase or decreases the width of the joint slightly and keep all arris ( corner of bricks ) vertical so all face can be easily kept what we like to say is " spot on plumb " .
If you build a one brick wide pillar you can only plumb one corner of a full brick . The arris of the bricks on opposite end will never be in line or plumb . looks shoddy.
When mixing bricks you need to check they are the same dimensions . The red bricks are smaller than the whites so the perps are increased .
This lad has let the red bricks over hang the white , so i think he can try and keep it plumb . But it means the perps are massive . Good brick work should have 10 mm joints not some 10 mm ,12 or 14 mm .
The arris of the bricks should all be in line not going in and out on alternative courses. In the trade we call it burglar bond . Because the burglars can climb up it .
Good brickwork has all the bricks laid to gauge .IE the mortar ( bed ) joint is very close to 10 mm ( remember bricks vary slightly ) not 12mm /14mm and increasing
The very top bricks ( brick on edge ) are not plumb . known in the trade as " pissed " .
The faces of the bricks are smeared with mortar, big joint all ways look bad if you use a jointer . it leaves a concave joint witch increase the visual joint . When dealing with big joint in old brickwork say in the back of a fireplace beside a wood burning stove . I use struck weather pointing . You can disguise large joints and the rain is shed away from the face of the brickwork .
After you have used a jointer on brickwork you should clean the edges of the joint with a trowel or wait a bit and clean off the brickwork with a very soft brush , to remove the snots ( little bits of mortar) .
The pillar is covered in snots . It saddens me that some one would even own up to doing such shoddy work .
