I've been mixing my mortar too wet for years and a cracked chimney finally showed me

Had a call back on a chimney I built in Springfield two summers ago, and the freeze-thaw cycles made a vertical crack right through the center. An old guy I brought in to look at it just grabbed a handful of my mix, squeezed it, and said 'Kid, this is soup. It's got no backbone.' I mean, I always thought a wetter mix was easier to work with. How do you guys judge the right slump for exterior work in a cold climate?

3 comments

3 Comments

laura2112mo ago

The old guy is right. I did the same thing on a garden wall and the first hard frost turned it into a puzzle. You want it just wet enough to hold together in a ball without crumbling, but dry enough that it doesn't leave slurry on your gloves.

campbell.robin2mo ago

Exactly. That's the whole secret to most things.

paul2331mo ago

Reminds me of when I tried making adobe bricks out back. Thought I had the mix perfect, nice and stiff, packed them into forms real tight. Left them to dry for two weeks and they looked great. Then a summer thunderstorm rolled through and turned the whole pile back into mud pies. Should have covered them with a tarp I guess. Ended up with a big slick of red dirt where my garden shed was supposed to be.