Bricks Builder Actually Fixed My WordPress Layout Headaches (And Why You Should Care)
So I’ve been building WordPress sites for… honestly I’ve lost count at this point. Long enough to have worked with basically every page builder that’s ever existed, including some that probably should’ve stayed in beta forever.
And look, I’m just gonna say it upfront – Bricks Builder is the first tool in years that actually made me excited about WordPress layout work again. Which is weird to admit because, you know, I’m supposed to be able to code this stuff from scratch. But here’s the thing…
Most of us don’t want to anymore. And we shouldn’t have to.
The Layout Problems Nobody Talks About (But Everyone Deals With)
Okay so. WordPress layouts. Where do I even start with this mess?
I see sites all the time – and I mean ALL the time – where the spacing is just… off. Like, you can’t quite put your finger on what’s wrong but something feels amateurish. It’s usually the spacing. Or the way elements stack on mobile. Or both. Usually both.
Here’s a typical scenario I run into: client comes to me with a site that looks fine on their laptop. They’re happy with it. Then they pull it up on their phone and suddenly everything’s squished together like someone put the whole design in a trash compactor. The navigation overlaps the hero image. The sidebar content is now sitting on top of the main content. It’s chaos.
And the weird part? These are often sites built with premium themes. Like, someone paid $59 for a ThemeForest template and it still looks terrible on mobile. How does that even happen?
Actually, I know how it happens. It’s because most WordPress themes are trying to be everything to everyone. They’ve got 47 different homepage layouts, 23 portfolio styles, and 8 blog formats. But none of them quite do what you actually need. So you start customizing. You add some CSS here. A plugin there. Maybe some custom PHP if you’re feeling adventurous.
Before you know it, your site is held together with digital duct tape.
The Mobile Responsive Problem (That’s Somehow Still A Thing in 2024)
Can we talk about mobile responsiveness for a second? Because I’m honestly shocked this is still an issue.
Mobile-first has been the standard approach for what, like 8 years now? Maybe more? And yet I still see new sites launching that completely fall apart on phones. The text is microscopic. Buttons are impossible to tap. Images load at full resolution and take 15 seconds on LTE.
I had a potential client last month – nice person, runs a Seattle-based consulting business – their site had a beautiful desktop layout. Really nice. Clean, professional, good use of white space. Pulled it up on my iPhone and… the main navigation menu didn’t work. At all. Just didn’t respond to taps.
Turned out the theme was using some ancient jQuery plugin for the menu that hadn’t been updated since 2018. And nobody noticed because I guess nobody at the company ever checked their own site on a phone? Which is wild when you think about it.
Spacing Issues That Drive Me Crazy
Let me tell you about spacing because this is my biggest pet peeve.
Good spacing is invisible. Bad spacing screams “amateur” even if everything else about the design is solid. And WordPress themes – even expensive ones – tend to have really inconsistent spacing out of the box.
Like, you’ll have 40px of margin above one section, 20px above the next, 60px above the one after that. There’s no rhythm to it. No system. It’s just… random numbers someone threw in there.
I typically work with an 8px or 16px spacing scale. Everything is a multiple of the base unit. So you might have 16px, 32px, 48px, 64px. Never 17px or 43px or some random number. This creates visual harmony that people don’t consciously notice, but they definitely feel it.
But try implementing that with a standard WordPress theme? Good luck. You’re gonna be writing custom CSS for every single element. For hours. Maybe days if it’s a complex site.
Why Bricks Builder Actually Solved This (When Nothing Else Did)
Alright, so Bricks Builder. Full disclosure: I was skeptical when I first heard about it.
Another page builder? Really? We already have Elementor, Beaver Builder, Divi, Oxygen… do we really need another one? I literally said this out loud to my computer screen when I first saw Bricks announced.
But then I actually tried it. And… okay, I get it now.
The thing that makes Bricks different – and I’m not saying this because they’re paying me or anything, they’re not – is that it’s built by developers, for developers. But it’s still visual enough that clients can use it without breaking everything.
That’s a really hard balance to strike. Most page builders are either too simple (looking at you, Gutenberg) or so complex that they might as well be coding from scratch (Oxygen, I’m looking at you now).
The Drag-and-Drop Thing (That Actually Works This Time)
Look, drag-and-drop builders have been around forever. They’re nothing new. What IS new – or at least new-ish – is having a drag-and-drop system that doesn’t completely break when you try to do something slightly off the beaten path.
With Bricks, I can nest containers inside containers inside containers. And it just… works. The spacing doesn’t go weird. The mobile breakpoints behave predictably. The flexbox controls actually do what you’d expect flexbox to do.
This might not sound like a big deal if you haven’t spent years fighting with other builders, but trust me, it’s huge.
I was working on a client project last month – local Seattle coffee roaster, they wanted a product showcase page with a pretty specific layout. Three columns on desktop, two on tablet, single column on mobile. But the product cards needed to maintain their aspect ratio and the images needed to crop correctly at each breakpoint.
In Elementor, this would’ve required custom CSS and probably some jQuery for the image cropping. In Bricks? I did it in about 15 minutes using the built-in controls. No code. Just visual settings that actually make sense.
The CSS Control (For When You Actually Need It)
Here’s where Bricks really shines, in my opinion. And this is gonna sound contradictory but stick with me.
You don’t need to write CSS with Bricks. Like, at all. You can build an entire complex site using just the visual controls. But – and this is important – when you DO need to write CSS, Bricks doesn’t fight you.
There’s a custom CSS panel where you can write your own styles. And unlike some builders (cough Divi cough), your custom CSS actually takes priority the way you’d expect. No specificity wars. No !important tags everywhere. It just works like normal CSS.
Actually, let me back up. That’s not entirely true. Sometimes you do still need !important, usually when you’re overriding plugin styles. But that’s not really Bricks’ fault.
How I Actually Use Bricks (The Practical Stuff)
Okay so enough theory. Let me walk through how I typically approach a layout problem with Bricks.
First thing: I don’t start building immediately. I know, shocking. But seriously, I spend at least an hour just planning the structure. What sections do I need? How should they stack? What’s the hierarchy?
I usually sketch this out on paper. Actual paper. With a pen. It feels weirdly analog for web design but it helps me think through the structure without getting distracted by colors or fonts or other visual details.
Setting Up The Base Structure
Once I’ve got my plan, I start with containers. Lots of containers. This is probably controversial but I don’t really use Bricks’ section element that much anymore. I just use containers all the way down.
Why? Because containers in Bricks are basically flexbox containers with some nice presets. They’re more flexible than sections (ironically), and I find them easier to reason about.
My typical structure looks something like this: Container (full width background) → Container (max-width content area, centered) → Container (the actual content with proper padding).
Three levels of nesting might seem excessive but it gives me complete control over backgrounds, max-widths, and spacing without any CSS hacks.
The Spacing System (That Actually Works)
Remember how I mentioned the 8px spacing scale earlier? Bricks lets you set up custom spacing values in the settings. So I create a scale: 8, 16, 24, 32, 40, 48, 64, 80, 96, 128.
Then every time I set padding or margin, I’m choosing from these preset values. No random numbers. Everything is mathematically related. And the site just… looks better. Clients can’t always articulate why, but they can feel it.
The cool thing is, once you’ve set these up, they’re available across all your pages. So your spacing stays consistent even if you’re building the site over several weeks or months.
Mobile Breakpoints (Without Losing Your Mind)
Honestly, this is where most page builders completely fall apart. The mobile editing experience is usually terrible. You’re either stuck with a tiny preview window or you’re previewing on your actual phone and trying to make changes which is just… no.
Bricks has this thing where you can see and edit all breakpoints side-by-side if you want. Or you can switch between them. The key thing is that changes on mobile don’t affect desktop unless you want them to. It’s a proper cascade.
So I might set my desktop padding to 64px, tablet to 48px, and mobile to 32px. Three different values at three breakpoints. Dead simple to do in the interface.
And if I need to hide an element on mobile? One click. Show different content on tablet? Easy. Rearrange the order on mobile? Flexbox order controls are right there.
The Things That Still Annoy Me (Because Nothing’s Perfect)
Look, I don’t want this to sound like a Bricks advertisement because honestly, there are things that still drive me nuts.
The documentation could be better. It exists, and it’s not terrible, but there are definitely gaps. Sometimes I find myself searching YouTube for tutorials on basic stuff that should be clearly documented.
The learning curve is steeper than Elementor. Not as steep as Oxygen, but definitely steeper than Elementor. If you’re coming from Gutenberg, expect to spend a few hours just wrapping your head around the builder interface.
And the community is smaller. Like, significantly smaller than Elementor or Divi. Which means fewer third-party add-ons, fewer tutorials, fewer pre-made templates to start from. You’re kinda on your own more.
Performance Questions
People always ask me about performance with page builders. “Don’t they add a bunch of bloat?” Yes. And no. It’s complicated.
Bricks is actually pretty lean compared to other builders. The front-end code it outputs is relatively clean. No inline styles everywhere like Elementor. No 37 empty div wrappers like Divi.
But – and this is important – any page builder is going to add SOME overhead compared to hand-coding. That’s just physics. Or math. Or… whatever. You’re trading some performance for development speed and ease of maintenance.
In my experience, with proper optimization (lazy loading images, caching, CDN, etc.), the performance difference between Bricks and hand-coded layouts is negligible for most sites. We’re talking maybe 0.2 seconds on page load. Nobody notices.
Where it matters is on really high-traffic sites or if you’re doing something complex with lots of dynamic content. Then you might want to think harder about the trade-offs.
When You Shouldn’t Use Bricks (Or Any Page Builder)
Okay controversial take time: page builders aren’t always the answer.
If you’re building a blog with a simple layout that never changes? You don’t need Bricks. Just use a block theme or a classic WordPress theme with minimal customization.
If you’re building a high-performance web app that happens to use WordPress as the backend? Hand-code that thing. Don’t mess around with page builders.
If your client is never going to touch the site themselves and you’re comfortable with PHP and CSS? Maybe just build a custom theme. It’ll probably be faster in the long run.
I use Bricks for specific scenarios: client sites where the client might want to make their own updates, sites with complex layouts that change frequently, projects where I need to iterate quickly on design, landing pages where I need to test different layouts.
It’s a tool. A really good tool. But it’s not the only tool, you know?
Real Talk: What This Means For Your Website
If you’re dealing with layout issues on your WordPress site right now – and honestly, most WordPress sites have at least some layout issues – Bricks might be worth exploring.
I’m not saying it’s the perfect solution for everyone. But it’s the first page builder in years that I genuinely enjoy using. And more importantly, it consistently helps me solve layout problems faster than any other approach I’ve tried.
The mobile responsiveness thing alone is worth it. I can’t tell you how many hours I’ve saved not having to write custom media queries for every little layout adjustment.
The ROI Math
Let’s talk money for a second because that matters.
Bricks costs about $150 for a lifetime license. One time. Compare that to Elementor Pro at $59/year or Divi at $89/year. The math is pretty straightforward.
But the real ROI isn’t in the license cost. It’s in the time saved. If Bricks saves me 5 hours on a typical client project – and honestly it usually saves more than that – and I bill at $125/hour… that’s $625 in value per project.
The tool pays for itself on the first project. Everything after that is pure efficiency gains.
Where I Think This Is All Heading
Here’s my prediction, and I could be totally wrong about this: I think we’re going to see a shift away from monolithic page builders like Elementor and toward more developer-friendly tools like Bricks.
Not because Elementor is bad – it’s not. But because the web is getting more complex. Client expectations are higher. Performance matters more. And developers are tired of fighting with their tools.
Bricks represents a middle ground that I think is really smart: visual enough for clients, powerful enough for developers, performant enough for modern web standards.
Will it become the dominant WordPress page builder? Probably not. Elementor has too much market share and momentum. But I think it’ll carve out a solid niche among developers and agencies who prioritize control and performance.
Anyway.
How I Can Help With Your Layout Issues
If you’re struggling with WordPress layout problems – whether you’re using Bricks or not – that’s literally what I do. All day. Every day. Sometimes on weekends too, which probably says something about my work-life balance but that’s a different conversation.
I work with businesses primarily in Seattle, but honestly, location doesn’t matter much for web work these days. I’ve got clients all over.
Whether you need someone to fix an existing site that’s falling apart on mobile, or you want to rebuild your site with a better foundation, or you just want someone to train your team on how to use Bricks effectively… I can help with that.
I also handle ongoing WordPress management – security updates, performance optimization, that kind of thing. Because let’s be honest, most businesses don’t want to think about that stuff. They just want their website to work.
And if you’re interested in SEO or PPC – which you should be, because what’s the point of a beautiful website if nobody sees it – I do that too. Well, I work with specialists on the PPC side, but I coordinate it all.
You can find me at jamessowers.com if you want to talk about your specific situation. Or just email me. I’m pretty responsive, assuming I’m not deep in debugging something when your message comes through.
The main thing is: WordPress layout issues are solvable. They’re frustrating, sure. But they’re not mysterious. With the right tools and approach, you can have a site that looks good, works well, and doesn’t require a computer science degree to maintain.
That’s kind of the whole point, isn’t it?