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Old timer told me my mortar was too wet and now I check my slump by feel every batch
After he pointed out my wall was getting that washed out look on a job in Cleveland last fall I started going drier and the next two walls came out perfect, has anybody else had to unlearn what they taught you in school about mix consistency?
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jackson.max6mo ago
Wait the old timer actually said your mortar was too wet? That's wild because every school I went to drilled into us that wetter is better for adhesion and you should basically be able to pour it out of the bucket. Sounds like your Cleveland job taught you the hard way that book learning doesn't always match reality on the wall.
Man that washed out look is the worst too, makes you look like you don't know what you're doing even if the structure is fine. I've seen guys get sent home over walls that looked like that because the GC thought they were being lazy with mixing. Going drier makes total sense because you get cleaner lines and less mess on the face of the block.
Honestly half the stuff they teach in trade school seems designed for perfect conditions that don't exist on a real jobsite with wind and sun and whatever else. Cleveland in the fall is no joke either with that lake effect humidity screwing everything up. Good on you for listening to the old timer instead of doubling down on what you learned in class.
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thea_bell6mo ago
Respectfully, I see it a little different, @jackson.max. That "wetter is better" thing gets thrown around too much without thinking about how it actually works on the wall. Sure, you need enough water for adhesion, but when it's that soupy, the sand settles out and you get a weak bond anyway. I've seen guys mix it like pancake batter and then wonder why their joints are cracking a week later. The school fails to teach you that mortar has to hold its shape under the weight of the block above it, not just stick like glue. That old timer was probably saving you from a wall that wouldn't hold up for more than a season.
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victor6515mo ago
18 years doing this and I've never seen a wall fall down because the mortar was a little wet. @thea_bell makes some good points about sand settling out but honestly we're not building bridges here. I've seen guys mix it like concrete and get worse results because they couldn't butter the blocks fast enough before it skinned over. The real problem is usually the guy on the wall not the mix anyway.
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shane_wilson5mo ago
Hold on, are we really gonna act like water content has nothing to do with how mortar bonds? I gotta push back on that. I've definitely seen walls where the mix was too wet and the joints just crumbled out after a freeze because the sand all settled to the bottom. You can't tell me that's just the guy on the wall being bad at his job. Overworking it to get a decent bed is a real issue when it's soupy, and that can mess up your bond way worse than a slightly drier mix. It's not about making it like concrete, but there's a happy medium where it's workable but not running down the blocks.
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