Laying block the professional way
Veteran concrete block layer one of the best
Manuel Lopez, left, and Javier Lopez, lay a line of
block at the Marketplace at 5th Street shopping center.
Yucaipa - As in sports, some have the athleticism and soar to great heights, while others - try as they might - reach no higher than mediocrity.
If block layer and mason, Manuel Lopez, were a baseball player he'd be a home run hitter, an all-star, and maybe even a Hall of Famer. The man knows how to lay concrete block, and lay it fast and accurately.
Brian Conroy, who owns the Marketplace at 5th Street in Yucaipa, admits he made a mistake. He hired a block layer to do some work on his nine-acre shopping center. The work wasn't being done right. So he called Lopez to the rescue.
"I wanted to spread the work around (because construction work has slowed down), but I should have hired Manuel in the first place," said Conroy. "He's the best."
How does one become the best in a trade that seems little else than backbreaking work. Lifting and laying 35 to 45 pound concrete block?
"It takes time," said the lean and wiry, 57-year-old Lopez. "I've been laying block for 32 years." He admits sheepishly that he's been told he's the best and fastest in southern California. But no, he admits, he's never entered into any block laying contests to test his skill against others.
Lopez says he's seen some new comers - tenders as he calls them - catch on fast and start laying block in three months. But others? "I've seen some who never learn, and they stay tenders for years and years," Lopez said.
See here, he says, pointing to a block that juts out from the others. "It sticks out and throws the whole line off," he said. To prevent that, each layer has be laid down by following a "chicken line," a taught string stretched along and above a line of block where the next layer will be set in place.
Manuel Lopez sets down mortar in which concrete
block will be laid and tamped into.
"The chicken line keeps me laying the blocks level and straight," Lopez said. And without it? He just throws his hands in the air and smiles.
On a recent day, Lopez was laying block for a small building to enclose trash containers at Marketplace. It will take 450 blocks. A small job of no more than three days, he said. But the catch is the building is irregularly shaped with several sharp corners to accommodate a door.
If Lopez' math was off, if the corners aren't square, and if the bottom layer of block isn't straight and level, the work would look like, well, minor league. But Lopez' blocks and the mortar joints are straight and true. Perfect to the admiring eye.
While Manuel Lopez lays the block, Javier mixes cement, carries block and lifts them up to his uncle, and then smoothes the mortar joints with a jointer. This is Javier's very first day on the job.
How's he doing? "He's learning, it will take time," said Manuel.
But Javier has an advantage. His "coach" is a pro.
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