Can we talk about using a dry mix for pointing on a damp wall

I tried a dry mortar mix for repointing a garden wall last weekend after a rainy morning and ended up with crumbling joints that fell out within 3 days, has anyone else had this backfire on them?

2 comments

2 Comments

markm273d ago

Whoa, that's rough... but I gotta say I think your main problem was working on a damp wall. Dry mix needs the wall to pull moisture out of the mortar to set up right. If the wall's already wet, that water can't go anywhere and the mortar just stays as loose sand and cement. Plus a rainy morning means the bricks themselves are soaked through, so they're not drawing anything out of your mix. That's why it crumbled out so fast. Next time you gotta wait for a few dry days in a row so the wall's good and thirsty.

willowc603d ago

And another thing people don't think about - that wall's probably been holding moisture for days if the rain's been steady. Bricks are like sponges inside. They don't just dry out overnight. You gotta check the core of the brick, not just the surface. I've seen guys slap mortar on a wall that felt dry to the touch but was still wet an inch deep. That mix never grabs right. Give it a full 72 hours of sun and wind before you even mix a batch.