That stretch of weather last spring wrecked every good habit I had

I'm a bricklayer in Nashville and we had three straight weeks of rain back in April. Usually I don't mind a little wet weather but this was something else. Every morning I'd show up to the jobsite and the sand pile was soaked through. The mortar kept slumping on me and I had to mix it way stiffer than I like just to get it to hold. Lost half a day on a retaining wall when the foundation trench filled up with water. By the end of the second week I was second-guessing every joint I laid and my helper was calling out sick from the cold. The job that should have taken two weeks stretched into almost five and we ended up pouring concrete in a drizzle just to get it done. Has anyone else had a run of bad weather that just threw your whole rhythm off?

3 comments

3 Comments

casey26819d agoTop Commenter

Ever notice how bad weather does more than just mess up your work... it actually changes how you think about your craft? I'm not a brickie but I help run a small tree service and last spring's rain turned every stump grinding job into this muddy nightmare where you couldn't see the root lines anymore. You start second-guessing cuts you'd normally make without even thinking... and that hesitation sticks with you even when the sun finally comes back out. It's like the weather messes with your muscle memory or something.

white.keith19d ago

Wait, @casey268, you're saying the mud was so bad you actually couldn't see the root lines? That's wild, I never thought about weather making you second-guess cuts you've done a thousand times.

kelly_rivera19d ago

Three weeks of rain sounds like a nightmare for masonry work. I've seen guys in my crew have to redo whole sections of wall because the mortar just wouldn't set right in damp conditions. That hesitation your talking about, it's real. I watched my father in law, a brickie for 40 years, start double checking every single joint after a wet spring. He lost his confidence for months. Weather like that doesn't just slow you down, it makes you question your own hands.

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