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Saw a wall I built 5 years ago and wow did it look different | Bricklayers - Vivisector

Saw a wall I built 5 years ago and wow did it look different

I drove past a house in Cleveland last week where I did a retaining wall back in 2019. The mortar was all crumbly and cracked in a bunch of spots, but the brick itself looked fine. Turns out I used too much sand in the mix that batch because I was rushing. Now I always double check my ratios before mixing. Any of you guys ever go back and see your old work looking rough?

3 comments

3 Comments

phoenixk642mo ago

I did a patio back in 2017 for a friend in Akron and went back last summer to help them move a grill. Honesty, the whole thing had settled weird in one corner and there was a low spot where water would pool bad. I blamed it on not compacting the base enough before laying the stone. Now I always do a double pass with the plate compactor and check for level with a longer board. You live and you learn, man. I still cringe thinking about that job every time I see a picture of it.

emmaking2mo ago

I swear I just read something about patio settling that basically said the same thing. Some contractor on another thread was saying how most people don't realize how much the ground can shift even after you think it's packed down. They said you gotta wet the base too before compacting, not just run the machine over dry dirt. That honestly makes sense for what happened with your Akron job. I bet that corner where it settled got less compaction because it was against the house or something. It's wild how one little mistake can haunt you for years like that.

tessa_carr2mo ago

That's 7 years of guilt over a patio though lol. I mean yeah it'd bug me too if I saw it, but homeowners probably don't zoom in on the low spot like we do. Unless the water is actually seeping into their basement, a little pooling in the corner is just a quirk at that point.