Old foreman told me to soak bricks before laying them in summer heat

Back in June I was working a job in Phoenix where it hit 110. My foreman kept saying soak the bricks or the mortar will dry too fast. I thought he was old school and ignored him. By day three I had cracks forming in my first wall because the brick sucked all the moisture out. Had to tear down about 6 feet of work and redo it. I finally soaked them like he said and the rest of the wall held fine. Anyone else run into this with dry climate jobs?

2 comments

2 Comments

taylor_miller1027d ago

Brought it up with my crew on a job in Vegas last August and they all laughed at me for soaking bricks too. But I saw the difference firsthand when we had a section where the water truck broke down. The dry laid bricks had this powdery mortar that crumbled right off compared to the soaked ones that set nice and solid. It's crazy how much water those things can pull out of your mix in like ten minutes when it's over 100 degrees.

terryk2827d ago

Saw the same thing happen on a job in El Paso a few years back. I was dead set against soaking bricks figured it was outdated and slowing us down. Then we had a stretch of 105 degree days and I noticed the mortar around the dry bricks was basically turning to sand overnight. Had to pull out a whole corner section that was already starting to crumble. After that I soaked every brick for a solid minute before laying them and the difference was night and day.