Shoutout to the old timer in Tulsa who said to soak my trowel in vinegar, I owe him a beer

Faith Ellis · 2026-10-18T16:30:04.18846+00:00

I laughed at this guy. Straight up laughed. He came by a job site in Tulsa last spring where we were laying a big back patio, looked at my trowel all caked with mortar and said soak it in white vinegar overnight and the stuff will fall right off. I nodded and figured it was one of those old wives' tales guys pull out to mess with the younger crew. That night I dropped it in a bucket with maybe a quart of the cheap vinegar from the grocery store, mostly because I was too tired to scrape it. Next morning the mortar came off in one big sheet. I just stared at it. I've been scraping trowels with a chisel for 9 years and losing skin doing it. Cost me about $3 for the vinegar and now my whole crew does it every Friday. Any of you got a trick like that you blew off at first and then felt dumb about?

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Shoutout to the old timer in Tulsa who said to soak my trowel in vinegar, I owe him a beer | Bricklayers - Thought Shares