Quantity of Mortar

Hi,

I'm about to do some bricklaying for the first time, with the traditional first project of a barbeque. This is going to be quite a big barbeque, though (just under six feet wide) and I have no real idea how much mortar I'll need. I've ordered 275 bricks (allowing a margin and for having to chop some) - is there some kind of rule of thumb for how much mortar would be required? I'll probably be buying from B & Q, and probably their ready-mix stuff as it didn't seem much more expensive than the constituents and I don't mind taking the idiot-proof option in areas that I don't know much about. I have arranged to borrow a mixer.

Any non-obvious advice welcome, though I've read quite a few Web pages on the subject now so I'm not looking for step-by-step instructions.

Cheers,

Pete

Reply to
Pete Verdon
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Reply to
sm_jamieson

The message from Pete Verdon contains these words:

I don't do brickwork (my house is all stone) but I have come to expect that I need much more mortar than is obvious at first glance.

You could make a first approximation by working out the volume of all the joints bearing in mind that the frog in a brick takes a good chunk of mortar.

My ancient (1965) architects and builders diary (which I find an invaluable source of information) says: "One yard super half brick walling =48 bricks and 0.75 cu feet mortar.

Expect the dry mix to shrink slightly when water is added and don't mix more than you can use in an hour. When mixing mortar in a mixer I tend to start with either 2 gallon or 3 gallon of sand. Anything less and I mix in a bucket. Anything more and I have ended up with it going off before I can use it.

Reply to
Roger

My gut feeling is that's a bag of cement..and about 4 times as much sand..so lets say tops 100kg or so.

But that seems high.. maybe not. Depends how good bricklayer you are. I'm not, and waste a lot. But the end result looks OK.

These days I always seem to have a bag of sand around (gardening use) and just buy cement by the bag when needed.

Reply to
The Natural Philosopher

You need much more mortar than you might at first imagine. About 1kg of sand and cement ready-mix per brick.

Reply to
Andrew Gabriel

"Pete Verdon" wrote in message news: snipped-for-privacy@mid.individual.net...

Assuming a barbeque about 2m wide, 1m high and with 1m ends you'll need about 250 bricks and 280 kg of dry mix.

Reply to
Dave Baker

don't use ready mixed mortar - it is way too strong and dries horrible, plus it stains everything it touches, the sand in it is far too sharp for building and it's too dear, in short it's expensive s**te.

Buy one bag of opc (ordinary portland cement) and 4 X 25kg bags of red building sand. Mix 2 sand to half the cement for a 4:1 mix, and 2 tablespoons full of good quality (fairy if possible) washing up liquid (it's not worth buying plasticiser for such small amounts) and mix to a suitable consistency.

Don't mix all the mortar at once, because it's unlikely you'll lay 270 bricks in a day, plus it might start raining and you'll have to ditch it.

if you intend using a mixer, use half the allocated ingredients first, so that you have some dry ingredients to dry it up should it end up too wet...if it ends up too dry add a small amount of water at a time until it's right, leaving the mixer to run for at least a minute inbetween adding water splashes, keep adding bits of all ingredients (except W-U-L) until you have mixed all the sand/cement that you intend using in that mix.

HTH

Reply to
Phil L

Much cement (e.g. Blue Circle Mastercrete Original - the first I found) may not need any additional plasticiser.

"Blue Circle Mastercrete Original entrains a controlled quantity of air and the addition of admixture of the air-entraining type is unnecessary and not recommended for concrete. In mortar and rendering, the addition of proprietary air-entraining mortar plasticiser is either unnecessary or the manufacturer?s recommended dosage significantly reduced dependant upon the sand used. Other proprietary admixtures of the non air-entraining type and pigments are compatible with Blue Circle Mastercrete Original. Trial mixes are recommended to determine optimum mix proportions."

Reply to
Rod

What's he going to lay the other half of the bricks with?

Reply to
Dave Baker

A trowel.

HTH

Reply to
Phil L

Thanks for all the suggestions. It seems likely that without your advice I would have bought way too little.

Pete

Reply to
Pete Verdon

A brickophilaic.

Reply to
The Natural Philosopher

Which is a lot less than you think when starting out - I was only laying about 30 bricks ph on a recent diy job, due to my inexperience. Came out fine, but so much time needed to check levels etc when a pro just 'feels' it.

Reply to
Steve Walker

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