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Got handed a wet mortar mix on a job in Austin last Wednesday
I show up to this retaining wall job and the helper had already mixed the mortar. Problem was he used way too much water, stuff was practically soup. I tried laying the first course anyway and the bricks just kept sliding off the line. Had to stop, throw out the whole batch, and redo it with the right mix ratio. Took me an extra hour but the wall actually stayed put. Has anyone else had a helper wreck a batch like that and what did you do about it?
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wesleyb2021d ago
Man oh man, I've been there and it's the WORST. One time I had a helper mix mortar so watery it looked like pancake batter. I tried to lay a block and it just slid right off the trowel and landed on my boot. I called that batch "the swimming pool" from then on. So yeah, I dumped the whole thing too and showed him the "snowball test" where you squeeze a handful and if it drips like soup you know you messed up. He felt bad but at least he never did it again.
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spencer98121d ago
Goodness, that brings back a few memories. So you just dumped the whole batch and started over, right? Did you take the helper aside and show him how to check the right consistency or did you just fix it yourself?
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You ever have one of those days where you're standing there staring at a puddle of mortar that looks more like a swimming pool than something you can build with, and you just gotta laugh? Like, I remember one time I had a helper who thought adding water made it easier to work with, so he just kept dumping water in until it was basically soup. I came back from grabbing a coffee and saw this sloshing mess, and I swear I felt my left eye twitch for a solid minute. Ended up showing him the ol' trowel test, where you flip it upside down and if it don't stick, you're good, but this stuff just ran off like a waterfall. He felt terrible, but at least we got a good story out of it and he never did it again after that.
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