Rained on a fresh wall I built last Thursday, mortar turned to mush

I spent all Wednesday afternoon laying a nice garden wall at a house in Eugene, got it all struck and cleaned up, but then Thursday morning came and a freak thunderstorm hit before I could tarp it. The mortar basically washed out of the joints in about an hour, and now I gotta rip out a whole section and start over. Anyone else ever get burned by trusting a clear forecast too much?

2 comments

2 Comments

seanh9127d ago

Did you even wet the wall down before it started raining? Mortar wants to cure slow, not get flash flooded. A little rain should just wash the dust off, not turn it to mush if you mixed it right in the first place.

willowroberts27d ago

My neighbor tried that once with a retaining wall he was building and he had the same thing happen. Left it uncovered and a storm came through overnight. Ended up having to tear the whole top two rows off and start over. Said he learned his lesson about checking the weather app before mixing mud.