Bricklaying method statement

A bricklaying method statement is the order of work for this elevation. It should say where the packs sit, where the cutter sits, how the wall is tied as it rises, and what is left safe when the gang goes home. A RAMS (a risk assessment and method statement) puts that sequence next to the hazards. A competent person still has to check it against this plot.

RamsBox produces a PDF only. There is no Word export. The free watermarked preview does not need an account or a card. Start one from the bricklaying RAMS, or open the form at the bricklaying draft.

What the method has to contain

• Sequence. Setting out, the first course, how openings are built in, and how the lift above is reached. Arrival and the briefing come before the first block is cut.
• Scaffold handover and loading. Name the scaffold, the handover, and the load the gang will put on the lift. Blocks, a tub and two people are a load. The gang does not move ties or boards to make a bay fit.
• Mortar and silo. Where the mix is made, how bags or the silo are kept off the public edge, and that wash water does not go down a drain.
• Cutting dust. The cutter has a bay, water or extraction is on before the first cut, and slurry is not left to dry in the plot. RPE is extra, not the only control. Respirable crystalline silica is listed in the current EH40. Use that list. Do not copy an old number into the method.
• Manual handling. How packs are opened and how blocks get from the pack to the wall without a twist on a wet scaffold. Heavy blocks are a two-person lift when one person cannot hold them safely.
• Openings and edges. Lintels, door openings and any unprotected edge are in the sequence, not in a footnote. Guardrails stay up while the lift is a working platform.
• Weather and the wall when work stops. Who stops the job in heavy rain or frost, how fresh work is protected, and how the wall is left stable and tied. An untied leaf at the end of the day is not a paused job. It is an unstable one.

A short worked sequence

A ground-floor leaf on a house plot, with the scaffold already handed over:

1. Brief the gang. Check the scaffold handover and the load limit before a pack is opened on the lift.
2. Set the cutter bay at ground level, with water or extraction, away from the footpath.
3. Open packs at ground level. Land on the scaffold only what the handover allows.
4. Lay, tie as the wall rises, and build in openings. Do not stand on the wall.
5. Cut in the bay, not on the scaffold boards over the path.
6. At the stop, protect fresh work, leave the wall tied, and clear the lift. Tell the supervisor if the weather, not the programme, ended the day.

That is the shape of a method. It is not a sign-off for a real plot. The hazards and the scores belong in the bricklaying RAMS, which a competent person still has to review.