Warning: my old way of mixing mud was costing me a full day a week

For years, I'd just dump a bag of mortar in the mixer, eyeball the water, and let it rip. I'd spend half the morning adjusting batches, dealing with stuff that was too wet or too dry, and wasting material. About six months ago, a guy on a site in Tacoma showed me his method: he weighs his sand and cement with a cheap scale and uses a marked bucket for water every single time. I thought it was overkill, but I tried it. Now my mix is the same from the first batch at 7 AM to the last one at 3 PM. I don't have to stop and fix it, and I'm not throwing away half a mixer of bad mud anymore. It probably saves me eight hours of hassle over a normal work week. Has anyone else made a simple switch like that which actually saved a ton of time?

2 comments

2 Comments

mark_mitchell3d ago

Pre-weighing is the only way it works for me. I set up a bunch of five-gallon buckets with the right sand weight first thing, so it's just a dump and go all day. The extra ten minutes in the morning saves hours of messing around later.

henderson.oscar3d ago

Weighing the sand and cement, that's the key part I'm stuck on. How do you deal with that on a busy site? I get the water bucket, that's easy. But stopping to weigh every single bag of sand sounds like it would slow you down just as much as fixing bad batches. Do you pre-weigh a bunch of bags in the morning, or what's your actual setup?