I swore I'd never lay block in cold weather, then a job in Boise last February changed my mind

Jenny Hall · 2026-09-17T17:10:05.3952+00:00

For 12 years I turned down any work under about 40 degrees and told anyone who'd listen that winter block work was a fool's game. Last February I took a small foundation job in Boise because things were slow, and I was dreading every day of it. The first morning it was 26 degrees and I figured the mortar would just sit there and die in the board. What actually happened was my mud guy showed up with heated water and a covered tub, and we kept the mortar at about 70 degrees all day, which honestly made it creamier than the stuff I fight with in July. The bigger surprise was the block itself, cold block pulls moisture out of mortar fast, so we dipped each unit in a bucket of warm water before setting it, and the bond came out tighter than most of my summer work. We did 340 blocks in three days and the inspector said the joints looked better than the last two jobs he'd seen from bigger crews. I still don't love working in gloves, but I was wrong about the season. Anyone else up north running heated water and dipped units in the cold, or am I late to something everybody already knew?

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I swore I'd never lay block in cold weather, then a job in Boise last February changed my mind | Bricklayers - Babble Community