Vent: That old timer who told me to soak my bricks before laying them

I had a guy on a job in Raleigh last summer yell at me for ten minutes about soaking bricks in water before the mortar goes on, and now I see why he was so serious because the mortar dried out way too fast on a hot day and cracked bad.

3 comments

3 Comments

king.wyatt2d ago

Wait, he actually yelled at you for ten minutes just about soaking bricks? That's wild, some old timers really take their methods to heart. But you know what, he was probably right because dry bricks suck the moisture right out of the mortar on a hot day. A buddy of mine had the same thing happen on a patio last July and the whole thing was cracked within a week.

ray3632d ago

Drenched mine in a bucket of water for about 20 minutes before laying any of them. The old timer was right, it made the mortar stick like glue even when the sun was blazing. Had a job go wrong once with dry bricks and the whole wall ended up looking like a cracked eggshell. Never again. Soaking seems like a pain but it saves you a ton of headache later.

henrycooper2d ago

Honestly I learned that lesson the hard way too, except my yelling came from my own wife when she saw the cracks in our garden wall and asked why I couldn't just wet the bricks like a normal person. Ngl it took me three tries to get it right.