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Vent: old timer on my crew swore by soaking bricks in a wheelbarrow overnight, and he was right
So I've been laying on a house in Mesa for about 3 months now, and back in April this older guy named Ray who's been doing this since the 80s kept bugging me about dunking my bricks before I set them. I laughed it off at first because who has time to soak a whole pallet when the GC is breathing down your neck. But we hit a stretch of 100 degree days and my mortar joints kept drying out before I could even strike them, which looked terrible and I had to chip out about 30 bricks on one wall. Ray just handed me a hose and said soak em, so I finally did it in a wheelbarrow and let them sit overnight. Next morning those bricks went down so smooth, the mortar stayed wet just long enough to tool, and my joints came out cleaner than anything I'd done all spring. I felt like an idiot for fighting him on it for a month. Anyone else still soaking brick or did you all switch to something else for hot weather work?
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iris_ellis1mo ago
Sounds like you just had bad luck with the heat more than anything. Masons have been dunking brick forever but I wouldn't call it some big secret, it's just extra work when you're rushed.
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