Just now finding out how much mortar you actually waste on a big job

I was on a job site last week in Fresno, a commercial building with a ton of brickwork. The foreman told me he figured we lose about 15% of our mixed mortar just from what falls off the trowel or dries out in the wheelbarrow. That number kind of blew my mind when you think about a 10 yard mix costing a couple hundred bucks. Has anyone else ever actually weighed their waste or are we all just guessing?

2 comments

2 Comments

rowangonzalez20d ago

Yo did you read that article from Fine Homebuilding a while back where a guy actually weighed his mortar waste on a big chimney job? He came up with like 18% waste on a full day, which is wild. I've seen crews leave half a wheelbarrow dry out at lunchtime because they mixed too much and nobody wanted to stop working to wet it down again. On a 10 yard mix at maybe $150 a yard you're tossing a couple hundred easy just from bad habits. Always makes me wonder if guys actually track that stuff or if they just write it off as cost of doing business.

nancyd8520d ago

Yeah, but that 18% is just the cost of not having guys standing around while you remix, so it's probably a wash.