Brick Wall Mortar - What's the "normal" colour, and how much will I need?

[DIYNotIan]

OK, so it's my b-day tomorrow. No, not my birthday.... IT'S BRICKDAY! The wall's going up.... And hopefully staying up....!

Thanks for all the help.

One more question if you don't mind.... How long does the mortar mix last before drying out? We will be using a 3.5-4 sand to 1 cement mix, with plasticiser too. Just trying to work what size batches to make it in. Was hoping I can do half a bag of cement to 2 bags sand (all 25kg) to help keep the maths simple and so that I can add the right amount of plasticiser easily. But don't want it drying out on me before it's all used up.

Huge thanks

 

[theprinceofdarkness]

Premix the plasticiser with water in 5l plastic bottles (3% = 150* ml/5l yours may be different). Get hold of some plastic container, a dumpy plastic jug is OK. Decant a bag of sand into (onto) somewhere , count how many containersful you have used. Clean out container and gauge out a suitable amount of cement. From memory, Wickes 25 kG bag of ballast is 15.5 l, so one bag in the mixer and 3 1/2 l of cement. The cement gauge was actually changed to a Persil plastic container with a line marked on its outside and the jug washed out.
Frank
* 130ml of water weighs 150 gms, so get 150 ml of water in a small plastic container, and mark a line on the outside of it. FYI a small cup is normally 200 ml

 

[DIYNotIan]

Thanks mate.

One last thing, someone else has recommended that I wet the bricks before laying if they are reclaimed. Mine are reclaimed, but they are quite solid and heavy. Are they the type that need to be wet down?

Here's a pic:



Cheers

 

[tomfe]

How long does the mortar mix last before drying out?

Keep it covered with a plastic sheet and you'll easily get 3/4 hours, you can add more water after this but you'll find it starts to loose it's 'creamyness'

 

[^woody^]

You should only mix one bag at a time. For practicalities of mixing and use.

And don't hang around. Once it's mixed start using it.

You can dampen the bricks, but not soak them

 

[theprinceofdarkness]

Depends on the brick type, "red rubbers" from S. Hampshire soak up water at an alarming rate. I used to flood the reclaimed bricks with a hose, then start using the top ones after 5 minutes.
Frank

 

[stuart45]

Old saying was bricks should be well damped down but surface dry.

 

[^woody^]

We were using some bricks today, and we ended up dipping each brick in a bucket of water and then laying it straight away. Even then we only had about 15 seconds to adjust it. It was a right pain on some of the corners.