TIL a 78 year old mason told me to stop wetting my bricks before laying, on a job in Tulsa last month
I was hosing down a pallet of red clay brick like I always do and he walked over and said the mortar grabs better when the brick pulls the water out of it, not the other way around. Tried it dry on the next course and the bond felt tighter by the end of the day. Anyone else hear this or was he just pulling my leg?
My buddy ran into the same thing on a porch job in Amarillo, and the old guy there told him the dry brick sucks the water right out of the mortar and locks in. He tried it both ways on two walls and the dry one set up harder by the next morning. That mason in Tulsa was not pulling your leg.