Hit my 100th wall last week and found out my mortar mix was off the whole time

I just passed 100 brick walls built on my own (been tracking for about 2 years now). But when I went back to check some of my early jobs, I noticed a few of them had hairline cracks near the base. Turns out I was using too much sand in my mix for the first 40 or so walls. I thought I was being smart by saving on cement but I was actually making the mortar too weak. A retired mason at the supply yard finally pointed it out when I complained about my mix. Anybody else find a mistake like this after hitting a big number of jobs?

3 comments

3 Comments

the_kim21d ago

@hart.sage ngl the paint thing is a whole different beast cause at least with mortar you can fix the cracks. 40 walls in is kinda wild though, imagine the concrete trucks you coulda saved.

lily7021d ago

40 walls in before figuring it out is rough but we all learn slow sometimes.

hart.sage21d ago

Is it though? I've wasted way more than 40 walls trying to get a paint color to look right and just ended up buying a bunch of sample pots. The real tragedy is the lighting changes everything anyway, so it's probably going to look different tomorrow.