I finally argued with my bricklayer about mortar mix on a cold morning.

Cold additives don't fix poor bonding if the brick isn't pre-warmed first.

2 comments

2 Comments

So was your bricklayer even WARMING the bricks first, or were they just dumping chemicals in the mix? That cold brick will suck the heat and life right out of your mortar no matter what you add, and then you get ZERO bond. It's a total waste of time and materials.

the_brooke13h ago

I watched a bricklayer on a 25-degree morning just hosing down bricks instead of warming them. It's that same skip-the-basics move I see everywhere now. People want a fancy fix for a simple problem, like using a special coffee blend but never cleaning their nasty machine. The mortar fails because the cold brick wasn't prepped, just like my sourdough fails if I don't feed the starter. Everyone's looking for the magic chemical instead of doing the boring, basic stuff first. It makes the whole project fall apart before it even starts.

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