That job in Tacoma where we had to lay 800 bricks a day

Last Tuesday, the foreman said we had to finish a whole garden wall by Friday, which meant hitting 800 bricks each day. We started at 6 AM with a new mortar mix that set way too fast in the sun. By 10 AM, half the crew was chipping off bad joints. The boss brought in a big shade tarp and switched us to a slower mix, and the afternoon went smooth. Has anyone else had a mix fail on them like that in hot weather?

3 comments

3 Comments

victor65115d ago

Man, that "turning to concrete in the bucket" thing @andrew_shah said is too real. I used to think all mortar was basically the same until a hot day last summer. We mixed a bag for a small repair, and it went hard in like 15 minutes. Had to chisel the whole thing out and start over. Now I always check the bag for the temp range and keep stuff in the shade. That one mess taught me to respect the mix.

grantc8015d ago

Scrap a whole pallet of brick" is the worst. Heard a guy on a jobsite radio show say adding a little extra water on a hot day just makes it weaker, not slower. You gotta mix smaller batches and keep everything cool.

andrew_shah15d ago

Yeah, that fast-setting mix is brutal. We had a supplier send us the wrong type in July once, and it was basically turning to concrete in the bucket before we could even get it on the trowel. Had to scrap a whole pallet of brick because we couldn't clean the joints in time.