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Watched a new guy try to lay a wall with frozen mortar last winter
This was back in January near Eugene. Kid showed up with his mortar mixing on a 20 degree morning and wondered why it was falling apart on the trowel. I told him to get the water warm and cover the sand pile. He didn't listen and we had to tear out 6 rows of brick the next day. Took us 4 hours to fix what should have been a 2 hour job. I remember learning that lesson myself 10 years ago on a commercial job in Portland. My old foreman just handed me a thermos of hot water and said try again. Made me think about how some stuff you just have to learn the hard way. Anyone else deal with a rookie making that same mistake?
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william_harris1mo ago
Respect the old foreman approach but I gotta say that kid was in over his head regardless of the temperature. Frozen mortar is one thing but 20 degrees means the brick itself is likely frozen and you're fighting a losing battle from the start. Sometimes the real lesson is knowing when to wrap up for the day instead of pushing through.
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Did your foreman at least let the kid warm his hands before telling him to try again? I had a buddy who tried laying brick in similar cold up near Spokane, and he ended up with mortar so stiff it looked like playdoh blobs on the wall. The bricks were sweating ice crystals and nothing would stick. He spent the whole day chiseling his mess off the next morning. Made me grateful for my own boss who just called it quits when the temp dipped below freezing.
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the_simon1mo ago
Honestly, I'm not sure I buy the whole "it's that bad" narrative. I've worked in plenty of cold weather and yeah, mortar gets stiff and bricks get cold, but mostly you just adjust your mix a little and move slower. I've seen guys lay brick in temps way below freezing with heated water and it came out fine. The kid probably just didn't have enough experience to know how to work with it, not that the weather was the real problem. Plus, I hear these stories a lot and half the time it turns out the real issue was someone not prepping right or using the wrong materials. Not saying your buddy didn't have a rough day, but I think people blame the cold more than they should.
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