Hot take: Old school mortar mixing vs. modern pre-bagged stuff

I was on a job over in Springfield last week with this old timer named Jerry who's been laying brick since like 1975. He swears mixing your own sand and cement from scratch gives you way more control over the cure time and color, but I've been using the pre-bagged Type S for years and never had a call back. He showed me how the consistency was better on a tricky arch we were doing, but I'm still not sold on the extra time it takes. Anyone else ever try both and notice a real difference, or is it just old guys being stubborn?

2 comments

Log in to join the discussion

Log In

2 Comments

the_miles2mo ago

A buddy of mine from out near Columbus tried switching to pre-bagged after doing it the old way for twenty years. He said it was fine for straight walls and simple stuff, but when he went back to a job with a lot of arches and curved brickwork, he ended up having to redo a section because the pre-bagged mix didn't hold the angle right. Said it was just too soft and sagged before it set. He went back to mixing his own for those tricky parts after that. Not saying one is better across the board, but he sure learned that old school methods still have their place. Whatever works for the job, I guess.

5

jason_fisher42mo ago

Jerry's actually right about the cure time thing, @the_miles - I've messed around with both and the old mix definitely sets up slower on curved work, which is a huge plus for arches since you can fuss with it longer. The pre-bagged stuff is convenient for sure but I've seen it get a bit too stiff too fast on complex stuff.

4