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I mortared a whole fireplace with the wrong mix ratio and nobody caught it for 3 days
Last month I was building a fireplace surround in a house over in Lexington and I mixed my mortar by feel like I always have. Around day three the home owner's brother, who did masonry for 20 years in Ohio, picked at a joint with his thumb and asked me what my ratio was. I said about 3 to 1 and he just shook his head and said that is why the joints were drying chalky and cracking near the top of the firebox where it gets hot. I went back and looked at my own work and sure enough there were hairline cracks starting on 4 or 5 joints. I pulled the whole top section down and re-did it at 4 to 1 with a bit more lime and it set up so much smoother. Made me realize I had been eyeballing it for close to a decade without ever checking against a gauge. Any of you keep a measuring cup on site or do you still go by feel like I did?
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the_diana28d ago
Did you ever figure out why it felt right all those years even when it wasn't? I ask because my uncle did tile for 30 years and he swore by eyeballing his thin set, then one day a shower pan he did started leaking through the floor into the room below. Turns out his "feel" had drifted a little every year and he never noticed because nothing failed fast enough to blame it on the mix. It is a weird thing when your hands lie to you for a decade and the only guy who catches it is somebody visiting from out of state. I keep a red solo cup marked with a sharpie line for my mixes now, not because I do not trust myself but because I do not trust the guy I will be in five years.
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