Question for anyone who's tried the wet lay method on a hot day

Switched to wetting my bricks before laying them last July during a 95 degree job in Phoenix and it cut my mortar cracking in half, has anyone else seen that kind of difference or was it just the humidity that day?

2 comments

2 Comments

skyler_kim151mo ago

I got what Mike was saying about "no crumbling edges." I did the wet lay method last August here in Texas when it hit 102 and I had the same result. The mortar just stayed workable longer and I didn't have to rush as much. The difference was night and day compared to dry laying where the mortar would set up crusty in ten minutes. I still do it every time now when the temperature gets over 90.

jamies451mo ago

...and my buddy Mike tried it out on a similar job in Vegas that was pushing 110. He was skeptical at first, said it felt like wasting time. But after the first wall dried, he called me up and said the mortar had way less hairline cracks than his last dry-laid job. He even went back and checked a section from the week before and it was solid, no crumbling edges. Said he's never going back to laying bricks dry on a hot day, even if it means extra spraying.