Loading…
7
Picked trowel and jointer over a joint runner on a curved garden wall in Fresno, did I choose bad?
Last month I took on a curved garden wall in Fresno, about 40 feet of gentle sweep, and I had to pick between doing the joints by hand with a trowel and jointer or renting a joint runner for the day. I went with the hand tools because the rental was $85 for the day and I figured I could keep up, but the mortar set up faster than I planned and I was chasing the wall the whole afternoon. The joints ended up a little heavier in the curve than I wanted, nothing ugly, but not as clean as the straight runs I did last year. Has anyone run a joint runner on a curved wall, did it actually save you time or just make a mess on the sweep? I want to know before I bid the next one.
1 comments
Log in to join the discussion
Log In1 Comment
xenabutler7d ago
Skip the joint runner on anything with a real curve, it drags and gouges on the sweep unless your radius is huge. The trick with hand work is to cut your wall into short sections and only strike what you can finish before it sets, so you are not chasing 40 feet of mortar that is already going off. Next time mix smaller batches and keep a spray bottle handy, that fixes most of the heavy joint problem you hit in Fresno.
5