The author began each step with a 2 5/8-inch-high course of stretchers (bricks laid with their longest edge facing out), then used 2 1/4-inchhigh concrete cap blocks for fill so that the first layer of each step was 13 1/2 inches deep.
The second layer of each step consisted of rowlocks. Keeping a quarter of a bubble outside the line on the level ensured that the rowlocks would be pitched to drain surface water properly.
A line guided the installation of the rowlock course. To anchor the line, the author clamped a 2-by block to each side wall, looped the line over nails on the blocks, and secured the line to makeshift cleats on the faces of the blocks.
He clipped twigs over the line at each end and held the twigs in place with bricks.
The twigs held the line even with the upper corners of the starter bricks to guide placement of the rest of the rowlock course across the step.
As the author laid each rowlock brick to the line, he set his torpedo level on top to ensure that it was pitched the same as the end bricks.
Every few bricks, he checked the spacing with a brick-spacing ruler. By adjusting the thickness of the joints, he fit the final brick perfectly.
He buttered one side of the last brick with mortar and set it in place, leaving the other joint open. After spreading mortar on a hawk, he used a 3/8-inch tuck pointer to pack the final joint with mortar.
He finished the joints with a sled runner, which packs the mortar tight and leaves a straight joint with a concave profile.
After finishing the rowlock course at the front of each step, he laid two courses of rowlock stretchers behind the front row (33). These bricks ran perpendicular to the front row, with the joints between bricks in each of the two rows offset by half of a brick length. Behind the steps, he filled in with blocks cut to 6 1/4 inches high. With the mortar joint, the blocks came up even with the brick step at the front.
To provide drainage, the author left the head joints in the lowest course of the stairs unmortared, with sand keeping the bricks behind that course clear of mortar droppings.
A rowlock course finished that step, leaving the open weep holes, and he spread a layer of sand to protect the step from mortar droppings as he worked his way to the top.