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Overheard a GC say mortar color matters more than mix ratio
At a job in Tacoma last Tuesday, I heard the foreman telling a new guy that nobody checks the slump but everyone notices a ugly mortar joint. He said he spent 10 extra minutes per batch getting the sand blend right and his callbacks dropped to zero in a year. I used to just grab whatever sand was on the pallet, but now I'm matching the sample board before I even start. Anyone else found that color mismatch gets you more complaints than a slightly soft mix?
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charlieh741mo ago
Wait, he spent 10 extra minutes per batch just on sand blend? That's wild to me. I've been on crews where the foreman would lose his mind if you took an extra 10 minutes on anything, let alone every single batch. But then again, if it killed his callbacks completely, maybe he was onto something. I've seen homeowners walk right past a wall with a little honeycomb but lose it over a mortar joint that doesn't match the brick. The color thing is real. Ten minutes a batch still sounds like a lot though.
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