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Tried stacking bricks wet from the rain and learned a hard lesson
Last Tuesday we had a quick storm roll through, and I figured I'd save time by laying bricks while they were still damp. Big mistake lol. By the end of the day, three of them had slid right out of place and the mortar was all runny. My foreman just looked at me and said 'you know better than that.' Cost me an extra hour to fix it. Anyone else ever rush and pay for it with wet materials?
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olivermason16d ago
wait wait wait your foreman actually said "you know better than that" and just left you to fix it? bro I would have been fuming if my boss dropped that line and walked off while Im scraping runny mortar off crooked bricks. laying wet bricks is such a rookie mistake but honestly I bet half of us have done it at least once. that sloppy mortar sliding everywhere makes me cringe just thinking about it. bet you never make that mistake again though.
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richard_young8016d ago
Three bricks sliding out and mortar like soup, yeah Ive been there. @olivermason is right, half of us have done it once and never again. My foreman didnt even stick around to watch me fix it, just shook his head and walked to the truck. I spent that whole extra hour scraping off wet mortar and relaying those bricks while muttering to myself. At least the next time it rained I had the sense to cover the pile with a tarp instead of pretending I could outsmart basic physics. Sometimes you need to learn the hard way with a messy afternoon.
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Wet bricks are a nightmare, plain and simple. The moisture keeps the mortar from gripping right, and you get that soupy mess. What works for me is keeping a tarp handy and covering the pile as soon as the clouds get dark, not after it starts raining. Saved myself a lot of scraping and cussing that way. Another trick is to hose down dry bricks the night before if it's hot out, but then let them drain for a good hour before you start. That way they're damp but not soaked, which actually helps the mortar stick better instead of sliding off. Live and learn, we've all got a "don't do that again" story on the job site.
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