karen_roberts4•21d agoTop Commenter

Old timer at a job site in Omaha told me my mortar mix was too wet

Guy named Hank watched me lay a row and said I was making soup, not mortar. He told me to cut the water by 20% and wait an extra 2 minutes before mixing. I tried it and my joints stopped slumping. Has anyone else gotten handed a reality check by a retired mason?

3 comments

3 Comments

norab2121d ago

I mean that thing about lime content is actually a good point. Even a 5% difference in the aggregate can make the same mix behave totally different so what worked for Hank might not even apply anymore.

logan23621d ago

I mean old timers have been saying the same stuff for decades but half the time they're just repeating what their own boss told them without actually testing it. My buddy runs a crew in Lincoln and he actually adds more water than the bag says and his joints hold up fine, been doing it 15 years. Maybe it's just me but I think Hank might be stuck in his ways from back when lime content was different.

alice_hart19d ago

Whoa hold on, you really think your buddy's 15 years of doing it his way in Lincoln is proof the old timers are wrong? That's exactly the kind of anecdotal logic that gets people into trouble when they scale up or hit a different batch of materials. The reason those bag instructions exist is because they account for worst case scenarios and chemical reactions that actually have been studied for way longer than 15 years. If your buddy is getting away with more water it's probably because his specific aggregate and temp and humidity are all working in his favor that day, not because the rule is wrong. Hank might be stuck in his ways but at least he's not risking a call back six months later when those joints start cracking from too much water in a different mix.