That foreman's mortar recipe caused 60 blown joints

My foreman on a job in Tulsa swore by adding extra lime to the mix, said it made the brick stick better, so I followed his numbers for three straight days. We came back after a freeze and every wall we laid that week had cracked joints, about 60 total, and he blamed the sand supplier instead of owning his ratio. Has anyone else had a boss push a bogus mix formula that cost you a redo, and did you just eat the hours or fight for the pay?

2 comments

2 Comments

laura_schmidt821mo ago

Did you check the freeze-thaw cycle date before pouring blame?

angela_harris1mo agoOG Member

Same thing happened to me last spring. Poured a whole slab mid-April, checked the weather app said 40s at night. Turns out the ground temp was way colder than the air. Cracks showed up within two weeks.