Mixed a batch of mortar last Tuesday that went bad on me halfway through the job, had to tear out a whole corner of a retaining wall I'd just laid.

It was a hot afternoon and I'd been in a rush, didn't check the bag's date and the cement had sat in my garage since last fall, so the stuff never set right and crumbled in my hands after two hours, anyone else had a batch of materials let you down like that?

2 comments

2 Comments

park.adam1mo ago

I know what you mean about that rush catching up with you. My buddy Phil was fixing his back patio last summer, grabbed a bag of quickrete he'd had sitting in the damp shed for six months. He laid down a whole section of pavers and the next day they were all loose, the mix just turned to sand. He had to rip out the whole thing and start over, wasted an entire Saturday. Really makes you feel like an idiot when the bag's just sitting there begging to be checked first.

miles541mo ago

Man that EXACT same thing happened to me with a bag of type N lime mix I found in the back of my truck bed. It had been sitting there since winter and I was in such a hurry to finish a stone veneer job I didn't even look at the date. Two hours later I could scrape the mortar off the back of the stone with my finger like it was dried mud. Had to chisel every single piece off the block wall underneath and it took me the whole next day to clean up my own mess. Makes you want to punch yourself in the face when you know the bag was RIGHT THERE and you just ignored it because you were trying to save ten minutes.