Met a union guy who changed how I think about mixing mortar

Old timer named Joe at the job site said he lets his mortar slake for a full 20 minutes and I always rushed it before, but after trying it my last three walls came out way cleaner, anyone else find that extra wait time makes a difference?

3 comments

3 Comments

anderson.piper5d ago

Bought a bucket of premix once that was way too wet and figured I'd just add more sand and mix it up. Ended up with a lumpy mess that wouldn't stick right no matter what I did. Had to toss the whole batch and start over. That's when I learned that mixing mortar is like baking bread - you can't just fix it by throwing stuff in after the fact. Gotta respect the process and the timing. Joe sounds like he knows his stuff.

miles_hall5d ago

20 minutes" huh. I was a skeptic too but yeah it really does change the spread.

milam485d agoRising Star

Oh man, you just reminded me of this time I tried to fix a dry mortar mix by adding water mid-batch and ended up with this weird sandy sludge that somehow hardened into something between concrete and Play-Doh. It actually worked okay for the first few bricks but then started crumbling at the edges and I had to redo the whole corner. You really can't rush this stuff or you'll be paying for it later.