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Cold mortar almost cost me a whole wall in Omaha last week
Got a rush job for a retaining wall near 72nd and Dodge, temps dropped fast and I kept mixing like it was July. That wall started slumping by the next morning, had to tear down 40 feet and redo it with accelerant. Anyone else run into trouble with cold weather mortar this season?
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hugo_bennett1mo ago
You mentioned "tear down 40 feet and redo it," and honestly, that part stings worse than the cold itself. But here's something nobody's talking about: the ground temp, not just the air temp. Air can read 35 but the ground might be sitting at 28, and if the subgrade is frozen even a little, that mortar is stealing heat from below and curing all wrong. I've started bringing a cheap infrared thermometer and checking the soil before I even open a bag. Also, that slump you saw, that could be from mixing too wet to make up for the cold, which just makes it worse. Sometimes the smartest move is to walk away for two days and let the weather pass, even if the customer is breathing down your neck. Nothing wrong with telling them a frozen wall costs more than a late one.
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