Old foreman told me to wet my bricks before laying. He was dead wrong.

I had this crusty old foreman (must be 70 now) who swore you gotta soak every brick in a bucket before you lay it. Told me it helps the mortar stick better. Well, I did that on a small retaining wall job in Austin last month and the whole thing sagged after two days. Turns out wet bricks make the mortar too soupy and it slides around. Has anyone else had bad luck with this trick, or did I just do it wrong?

3 comments

3 Comments

parkerrodriguez22d ago

Nah, you didn't do it wrong - your foreman was just stuck in the old ways (like using a flip phone in 2024). Soaking bricks makes sense if you're in the Arizona desert where things dry out in five minutes flat, but in humid Austin? That's a recipe for mortar soup. I watched a guy do this on a garden wall once and the whole thing looked like it was melting by noon.

grace56522d ago

Did you try using a sponge or just hose them down until they were basically swimming?

wade_young8622d ago

Stick to a quick spray with the hose @grace565, not a full soak. Wet bricks suck for mortar in humidity, period.