Just caught a crew using wet mortar on a dry day last week near Austin

I walked a job site near Austin last Thursday and saw a new kid mixing way too wet because he was rushing. That wall is gonna fail in a year with all that shrinkage, has anyone else had to fire guys over basic stuff like this?

3 comments

3 Comments

kelly3851mo ago

Seeing a kid mixing mortar that wet on a hot dry day makes my stomach turn. The water just evaporates out of it before it even has a chance to cure right. I've had to send guys packing for less than that because it's not worth the lawsuit when that wall starts cracking or spalling down the road. You might want to go back out there and check if that crew is using any kind of bonding agent, or you're just going to watch it fall apart piece by piece.

bennett.evan1mo ago

Yeah but honestly on a job like this you don't always get to pick your crew and sometimes you just gotta work with what shows up. If the kid is green and nobody's teaching him right that's on the foreman not the helper. Still makes me wince watching him splash water in there like he's making soup.

tarabell1mo ago

Right? I've literally watched a guy mix mortar so wet it ran like pancake batter and the wall sagged before lunch.