PSA: check your mortar mix before you start a wall, not after

Last Monday I laid about 60 bricks on a garden wall before I realized the sand I grabbed was way too fine. The mortar was crumbling by Tuesday morning and I had to rip the whole thing down. I got the sand from a local yard in Portland and it looked fine in the bag but it just didn't hold. Has anyone else had a batch of mortar go bad because of bad sand or a bad batch of cement?

3 comments

3 Comments

simons281d agoMost Upvoted

Learned that one the hard way myself.

milesj704d ago

Are you sure it was the sand and not just a bad batch of cement?

danielw883d ago

Oh man, that's a good point @milesj70, I didn't even think about the cement mix. Do you know if they tested the cement itself separately or just blamed the sand right away?