Spraying my mortar with a garden mister saved me a ton of clean up time

I was working on a garden wall last week in that 90 degree heat we had, and the mortar was setting way too fast on me before I could finish tooling the joints. On a whim I grabbed my wife's plant mister and gave the fresh mortar a light spray before I started tooling. It kept the surface workable for a good extra 5 minutes per course and I didn't have to scrub off any half-set crust later. Has anyone else tried this or am I just adding water to a bad situation?

2 comments

2 Comments

skyler_adams1mo ago

Hated the idea when I first heard it. Thought it was just gonna turn my joints into a crumbly mess. Tried it on a hot day last summer and yeah, you're dead on. That extra few minutes of workability makes a huge difference, especially when the sun's cooking everything. Gotta be light with the spray though, too much and it'll wash the fines out.

karen_hart1mo ago

You know what @skyler_adams, it's funny isn't it how the stuff we fight hardest against often ends up being the thing that saves us. I've noticed that same pattern with almost every new trick or tool I've tried in my workshop. First I'm dead set against it, then I try it once and wonder why I was so stubborn in the first place. The water spray trick is just like that, a little thing that fixes a big headache once you get past your own pride about it. Makes me wonder how many other simple fixes I'm still ignoring just because they sound dumb at first.