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Got told my mortar mix was too wet by an old timer on a job site
He said if you can see water pooling on top after a strike, you're basically making pancakes not bricks. I cut back 3 cups of water per batch and my walls finally stopped slumping on me. Anyone else had to unlearn bad habits from watching YouTube videos?
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skylercooper11d ago
That pancake comment got me. I used to mix my mud by feel and got humbled real fast when a block wall started sliding on me. Turns out the YouTube guys making it look easy are using way more water for the camera. I dropped from about 16 cups per batch down to 11 and my mortar finally holds a bead without sagging.
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sage_morgan7511d ago
Man that's EXACTLY it. I fell for the same trap watching those guys with their perfect looking mix and then my first real job I almost lost a whole corner because the mortar was too wet. Dropped down to about 10-11 cups per batch myself and everything changed. The slump test is nice but I swear you can just feel it when the mix finally grabs right. Nothing worse than seeing a wall start to shift while you're still trying to butter the next block.
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