Three days of rain turned my brick wall into a wavy mess

We laid a 60 foot garden wall in Portland last Tuesday and the mortar was still soft when the rain hit that night, by Thursday the courses had shifted a good half inch in spots. Unleveled the whole thing and had to tear down and reset about 200 bricks, which set us back a full day plus extra material cost. Has anyone else dealt with a sudden weather swing wrecking fresh work, or do you just always tarp up no matter what the forecast says?

2 comments

2 Comments

william_jackson6523d ago

...and honestly the tarp debate misses the real issue. You mentioned the mortar was still soft, but what about the sand you used? If it had a high silt content, it holds water way longer and stays weak for days. I've seen jobs where the mix looked fine but the sand was just bad, and no tarp would have saved it. Next time, do the jar test on your sand before you mix, it takes ten minutes and tells you exactly what you're dealing with. That rain was just the messenger, the real problem was already in the pile.

nina_johnson8619d ago

Man, you hit the nail on the head with that jar test. I had a similar gig a couple summers back, poured a small foundation for a shed, and it rained three days straight. I blamed the weather too, but when I finally dug into it, the sand was full of fines, just like you said. I switched to a cleaner sand from a different pit on the next job, same tarp setup, and it set up hard as a rock even with another storm rolling through. The jar test is now part of my routine, takes no time and saves me a ton of headaches. That rain really is just the messenger, bad sand is the real killer.