Split Brick

Have you ever noticed these small brick underneath windows. The reason for the small cut brick under the window is so the brick could reach the window. The windows are already in the structure. When the masons start the bottom course, they need to measure from the starter block and figure the spacing. In this case the mason waited to see when they would hit the window, and fill in with a spacer. A way to avoid this is to measure to the window first, figure the joint spacing, if jointing will be to big or too small, the mason could use a split brick to start with on the starter block. A split is a brick cut in half length wise. Instead of the full 2 3/4" face height (oversize brick) it would be roughly

1 5/8" face height. This would allow for a normal joint size and mess with the window. So, let's use the splits next time.