Middle aged apprentice mason
 

I am a 43 year old executive considering a major life change, and would appreciate opinions and words of wisdom from the Pelican crew.
My family and I will shortly be moving to Washington DC for my wife’s 3-year posting, and I will have the opportunity to quit my corporate job to do something completely different.
I love working with my hands, DIY, working on my 911 etc and always regretted not studying a trade in my younger years.
I’m strongly considering training to be a bricklayer, which would complement a side business I have cleaning chimneys.
I am physically fit and financially secure enough to take a major pay cut.
What do you think? Completely crazy? Am I likely to find an employer to train someone my age for a few years?
Appreciate any advice, particularly from masons.
I will likely return to an office job eventually but
Would love to have brickie in my skill set. Cheers

Go for it! So long as you and yours can afford to do it I say yes. My son took a break from his career to do woodworking for a bit. He enjoyed and the break confirmed that his original choice of a career was the correct one for him.

I think the allure of laying bricks for a living will wear off quickly. My dad was a bricklayer for 20 years. As a hobby it would be fun but as a day-in, day-out job it would get old. My dad did major upgrades to our home(s) and we built fireplaces from scratch, i.e., digging the hole to topping off the chimney in one weekend. That was pretty fun because there was some design, structural considerations and artistry involved-and time pressures. Homeowners got real nervous when dad would take the circular saw and cut a gaping hole in somebody’s living room on Saturday morning.

I went to college instead of going into business with my dad. He was disappointed. From a corporate job to construction is quite the leap. Different worlds.

You have a desire, set financially- so go do it. Personal experience, I'd rather have regrets about doing something and not working out, than regrets of nothing ventured of things that interested me. I saw my parents and their friends sacrifice for family, careers and once established just could not risk 'side interests' even if the resource was largely time. That's because they were of The Greatest Generation, whom I believe that they had made it through the Depression, WWII, and raising a family. As if they couldn't bring themselves to get off track or take a break from moving forward.

That idea strongly propelled me in somewhat opposite direction. Driven to succeed = yes, always moving forward = yes, go have some fun or try a hobby = absolutely.

I will say I've been a helper with concrete, masonry briefly with my own projects - it is some of the hardest work there is.......and I grew up on a farm. I say go for it, give it the same attention as you would in your line of work.

Life is far too short....

There are lots of "careers" that are a younger person's viable options imo, but that is "pretty green grass" on the other side of the fence in many instances. Are you financially secure? If so, then do whatever you want to do... you've earned that option ;)!

Many folks leave their corporate rodeos at the peak of their careers... and never look back while in their 40s too... YMMV.

Hope that helps :D!

.... while not executive level, I decided I wasn't gonna "work on Maggie's farm no more" at 48. No regrets and no looking back either... but where did the last 13 years go ;)?

Best to you and good luck!

I think that being able to change directions 180º and having the balls to give it a shot is fantastic. If you want to give it a shot, do it.
Many years ago, I got laid off (early 2001 when the market crashed). The company that canned us (a ton of us) paid for and sent us to, not a head hunter, but a company that was supposed to help you fill out a resume, interview, we took personality tests to determine what we should be doing, etc....

The personality test thing was interesting. You'd get some scores that were ranked. The highest ranked item was supposed to be what you did for a living. The second ranked item (in my case, working with my hands (cars, carpentry, etc...) was the kind of thing that they said would be better as a hobby than a job.

I've often heard that if you take something that you enjoy as a hobby and try to turn it into a job you can end up hating it and not even enjoying it as a hobby any more.

Since you will be accompanying your wife for her tour here in the DC, why not?

If you don't like it there are many, many jobs in the DC area across the spectrum of career paths.

I do have one word of caution: I don't know what the weather is like in Queanbeyan, Australia, but DC in the summer is hot, Africa hot, and humid - as the saying goes, "air you can wear".

I live 50 miles south of DC and know the drill!

Again, best of luck. I looked up Queanbeyan...looks like a neat place.

Good for you for wanting to do this.

I just hope you know what you're getting yourself into. Obviously you won't be laying bricks for a long time while your boss - who might be younger than you - decides if you have what it takes while you're doing all the dirty heavy work, and anything else that he decides needs doing, while the journeymen (Again, he or she might be a decade younger) do the good stuff. Summer and winter. Almost always outdoors.

Again, I tip my hat to you for thinking this might be right!

No. If you wat to enter the trades, do it through a program where you can actually learn the trade before you start working. e.g., an electrician. If you start into masonry or tile setting all you will end up doing is mixing mortar and sweeping. Sure, sparky's get siht jobs as helpers but most everyone has their hands on wire unless you're digging a trench.

Sparky's are smart enough to call in a trencher or hoe.

No. 2: be prepared to work your ass off at the pace of a 20 YO.

As a plumbing contractor in NYC (local1), I would try to get into the apprenticeship program of a union. We have had plenty of older guys/gals come through the apprenticeship school.

Be prepared to take a huge cut in pay as first year apprentices make almost minimum wage.

BUT, the payoff in the 5 year investment is great, $71.50 per hr (35hr) and a fantastic benefits package.

It can be done, just be prepared. Good Luck

My body hurts just thinking about an apprentice mason.

Two of my concrete guys are older gents, 50s maybe early 60s. They grew up in the business learning it from their fathers. If you look at them, their spines are no longer straight. Sure, they have helpers for the past 20 years, but their bodies are beaten. It only takes about 7-10 years to beat yourself up.

I say give it a go because that's what puts a smile on you at the end of the day but working for the boss is no fun unless you are on a large crew doing commercial type work where there's lots of equip to help with the lifting. Blocks get heavy by the 10th one. I say learn as much as you can, and put in your time for a couple years, go out on your own and choose your own job instead of lifting blocks for someone else. Much more satisfactions on giving people what they want and see the result and the smiles on their faces.

Right, "in shape" is one thing, brick laying seems like something else entirely.

Reality check;go to a a local home supply store,grab a full size bag of mortar mix and carry it around on your shoulder see how it would be to do this all day.

Awesome that you have an opportunity to try this. However I agree with others here - masonry work is HEAVY. I worked a summer with a mason during high school and despite being in wrestling shape I was destroyed by the third day. All the materials are heavy and labor intensive to prepare and deliver. Having laid much tile in my homes I would prefer a less back breaking trade, YMMV. Good Luck!

Sooo ... do you prefer to be called "pops" or "gramps" by the young guys :D?

DO IT.

It clearly calls to you. You enjoy working with your hands. You have a Plan B (office gig) should this not be all sunshine and roses.

I suspect that you will regret it if you don't.


In a similar vein, I have been wrenching on motorcycles recently. What a joy. It is great therapy.

Not that this is directly applicable to your question, but if you haven't, I suspect you'll enjoy searching youtube for "Fred Dibnah"

Here's a short one, but there is a documentary series on him that is, I think, four 30 min videos. It's well worth a watch and does have brick/chimney relevance.

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/3R3-YwDZrzg" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Things to Consider for the National Capital Region (NCR):

Median Home Price in Northern VA ( June 21) $650K
Avg Apartment Rent ( June 21) is $2K per month (+/-)

The Masonry Trade generally belongs to the Hispanic population ( Legal and Illegal residents).

Population of NCR is 12 million people. The work you seek is there, just a matter of finding it.

Generally speaking, traditional brickwork will be either commercial or high-end residential. Most average residential homes, the exterior cladding is either Hardi-board or vinyl.

Hope this helps.

If I were to make a career change....it would be to an auto warranty caller.
Would be fun to tell everyone that theirs have expired.

You could get an ordinary job as a labourer for a brick laying company and see if you like it (can cut it). And that way you are not messing the employer about by wanting training then quitting.

However... A stone mason. Something more specialised may be easier on the body and pay better. For those that don't know, a stone mason builds those fancy stone walls and feature walls on the front of houses.

If you do go ahead with this scheme, I hope that you'll document the journey here with weekly updates. Topics should include how you feel mentally and physically; the peccadilloes of the job and your co-workers, descriptions of your tasks, outside influences that affect the way you see the job, these can include the weather, the commute, the hours, how your friends and family feel about what you're doing, memories of the executive job you left behind, and your take on how well you think you are doing on the job overall.

(I know a lot of us from time to time have contemplated jumping off the treadmill and doing the honest labor man was meant for; not many have what it takes to make that leap)

Photos would be a plus!

I think it's a great idea. Contact https://baclocal1.org/ and tell them your plans. If they aren't helpful try something else. Just know that a full day of physical work is a whole different type of being in shape than a gym workout.

I worked as brick laborer as a teen. I was young and dumb and...

anyway, it was strenuous work but I enjoyed it.

Make sure your first week on the job is in August .... with 90% humidity!

...and the meager paycheck ;)

There will be no second week :D

This. I can imagine you could work at your own choices after putting in some time learning the trade. There are no doubt lots of people out there who have smaller jobs that might involve some creativity that would be too small for larger companies.

As for me, I wouldn't do it. I worked as a laborer in Westchester County, N.Y. at twenty years old. I would have to be young again to do something like that. I felt lucky to have been given the job of scheduling equipment & materials on job sites after some time.

I live in Spokane WA, second largest city in WA. We just spent a ton of time working to find a qualified stucco/plaster guy to do some work on a historic school building I work in part time. There's maybe 2 qualified guys in our whole area that can work on old school buildings like ours. Not bricklaying but close. If you can learn a trade, challenge your brain and become the best at what you do, you will be in demand. Good luck.

I get it about masonry. There is art to every job and your skill and attention to detail is on display for decades. I wouldn’t want to lay block, but brick and stone - go for it.

Those guys are gone. Retired and not too many young guys are willing to learn. Everyone is into the fast buck. Down here in LA, they are still around but all are older who do this type of work. The hispanics are start to pick up some but most need to be told what and how to do it.

If you learn the trade and get good at it, you won't need or want to go back to the office job. A good mason will be in high demand.

stone mason, perhaps. it's a dying art
brickie? no way.

Hit the gym now! You need to be able to do hard labor for 8+ hours a day in the heat. You don’t realize how much a desk job softens you up until you are out trying to keep up with the tradesmen! They will wear your ass out.

Is 43 years old still middle age? lol

Not for the faint of heart. Beginner laborer is where you'll start. Not glamorous but is a way up. I know several masons and they can work circles around me. My good friend was still at it to his late sixties, worked smart not hard.

I decided to become a union electrician at 47 years old. A bit of a learning curve with me in a class of late teen to mid 20 year olds. Absolutely my best decision ever.

The experiences, comeradery, education bennies were all I was looking for, also it kept me from getting "soft". I don't need no gym.

Now retired from the IBEW with extraordinary benefits and memories.

Previously worked for Schlage Lock (retired as well) as a systems intergrater and wish I had spent more years in the IBEW than there.

Terry

I do stone masonary as a hobby but my wife is better at it than me, I find it very relaxing and a satisfying activity

Especially when you stand back and can honestly say 'I built that, I built a thing!'

As people have said it is very hard on your body, my joints let me know this after a good days stone masonaring.

Think if I was going to learn a building trade I'd be an electrician or plasterer

A plasterer, are you mad LOL

I've completely plastered about six houses and it's the job from hell - although I always seem to be doing it haha. I agree about the electrician thing. Less hard labour, more money..

Especially when it’s hot and humid.
I did the walls and path from the driveway to the front door myself in june. Nearly killed me...

By today's standard, they are just leaving their parent's basement.

For fun, then fine, chase after your dream. If for money, then you must ask, when was the last time you had a:

Electrican
Plasterer
Mason
Tile settler
plumber

some to your house? That answer is plumber.

I tell people, you might not like it and the two things plumbers need to know are, Friday's pay day and siht flows down hill. There will always be a need for plumbers in the older cities or town. Wires and switches normally do not wear out much. Once bricks are up, they wouldn't need much work to them unless you are in earthquake country. They normally are reinforced concrete buildings so there's that.

10 years ago when i was 40, i had a job loss and had an opportunity to work on a landscaping crew for a summer so i did it thinking, how hard can it be, i love being outside "I always wanted to do this YAAAAAAAY!". at the end of 5 months, i was in good physical shape but not before the job almost killed me. and being stuck in the truck with 20 and 30 year olds and having to take orders from these pricks and being given the worst tasks nobody else could tolerate made me highly dislike everything about anyone under 40. truly one of the worst years of my life. must be something they teach in the military because all 4 were vets and to be honest the biggest a hole rascist ignorant disrespectful selfish losers i have ever had to associate with. relentless angry bullies with poor judgment. im still made at myself for doing this. good luck --oh, and I hope they dont allow boom boxes on the job site because the music these kids blast all day will drive you to madness

made me appreciate my education and ability to make money using my brain

Sorry but at 43 why are you even considering this?

Slinging bricks is a young mans game.