miam11•7d ago

Brick lifted clean off the wall during a cold snap last January

I was working a retaining wall job in Hamilton and the temperature dropped to -12 overnight. Next morning I went to lay the next course and a whole section just came loose in my hand. Turns out the mortar had frozen before it set. Had to chip out 6 courses and start over with accelerant in the mix. Took an extra day and a half. Anyone else deal with frost heave on fresh work?

2 comments

2 Comments

burns.ruby7d ago

Honestly sounds like you rushed it if you were laying brick in -12 without checking your mix first... accelerant should've been in there from the start.

tessa_kelly7d ago

Rushing it is one way to look at it, but sometimes conditions change faster than your plans. You can have everything calculated right for a Tuesday morning and by noon the wind shifted and you're dealing with a completely different set of challenges. Not everyone has the luxury of stopping the whole job to redo a mix, especially on a tight schedule with weather rolling in. Sometimes you just have to work with what you've got and deal with the consequences.