Almost lost a whole wall because of bad mortar mix

Last Tuesday on a job site in St. Louis I mixed a batch of mortar on a humid morning. Looked fine going on but started crumbling after 4 hours. Had to tear out 3 rows of brick and start over. The sand I used was too fine and the water ratio was off. Check your materials twice before you start, has anyone else had a batch go bad on them like that?

3 comments

3 Comments

hart.sage15d ago

You ever measure everything and still have it go wrong because of bad sand?

michael_coleman1015d ago

That reminds me of the time I grabbed a bag of sand from the back of the shed without checking it first. Turned out it had a bunch of clay in it from some old landscaping stuff. Whole batch went stiff in like 20 minutes.

fiona98515d ago

You ever start a job thinking "this'll be fine" and then it totally bites you? I used to just eyeball my mix until I had a batch start flaking off after a few hours, now I actually measure everything out.