I finally wrecked a $120 trowel on a bad mortar mix

I was on a patio job in Austin last Tuesday and used a batch of mortar that felt off right from the start. It was grittier than usual and kept grabbing at my trowel instead of spreading smooth. After about 10 minutes, I heard a loud crack and saw the handle split clean in half. Turns out the sand had some crushed concrete in it that chewed up the blade and put too much stress on the handle. Has anyone else run into bad aggregate ruining a good trowel?

2 comments

2 Comments

daniel85729d ago

Did you check the aggregate before you mixed it up or just dump it in and go? I had a similar thing happen a few years back on a retaining wall job and it turned out the supplier had swapped in some recycled concrete without telling anyone. That stuff can have tiny metal bits or old rebar chunks that just eat through a trowel blade like sandpaper. It's a real pain because you think you're saving a few bucks on materials but then you blow through a tool that costs ten times more than the savings. I'm just wondering if you caught the bad batch before you started or if it was a surprise after the crack.

kim19129d ago

Man, I read something online a while back about how recycled aggregate is getting more common in bulk deliveries because suppliers are trying to cut costs. Sounds like that's exactly what happened here. I remember a guy on another forum saying his whole crew went through three trowels in one morning before they figured out the sand had crushed glass mixed in from some demolition site. Your handle snapping is rough but honestly the blade wear is the sneaky part because you don't notice it until your tool is totally trashed. I always run a magnet over any suspicious looking sand now after hearing that story about the rebar chunks. It takes two minutes and might save you from buying a new trowel every time a supplier messes up their mix.