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Heads up: That cheap mortar mix from the big box store cost me $400 extra
I bought 10 bags of the store brand mortar mix to save like $2 a bag. Ended up with crumbling joints on a wall I did last month in Tulsa. Had to tear out 6 feet of work and redo it with the good stuff from a real supply yard. The whole job took an extra 2 days and cost me $400 in materials and lost time. Anyone else had a bad run with bargain mortar?
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jamesroberts7d ago
That cheap store brand mortar mix" is exactly what got me. Picked up a pallet of it for a patio last summer. Wasn't even the crumbling joints that got me, it was how it set up way too fast in the heat. Had to mix smaller batches and still ended up with a rough finish.
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lunag307d ago
Had my buddy try that stuff on his pizza oven and it crumbled apart within two months.
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Man I learned that lesson the hard way too back in 2017 on a retaining wall job near Broken Arrow. The store brand stuff looked fine in the bag but it just didn't have enough portland cement in the blend. I started adding a half shovel of extra cement per batch and it helped some but honestly the best fix is just paying the extra buck a bag from a masonry supply house. The temperature thing is real too - that stuff sets up like concrete if it's over 80 degrees outside so you gotta wet down your boards and work fast. If you're stuck with a pallet of it already, try mixing in some lime or just use it for non-structural stuff like garden edging.
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