I'm making mortar today.
I've got pre-mixed mortar which we've got from Bunning's.
The object of this being pre-mixed, it's already it's already got the cement, the lime all
in the sand, it's ready to go all you need to do is add water.
Now the most important thing when doing this is to get the consistency right.
So the amount of water you put in is the most important key to getting a good consistent
mix through the mortar.
So what it will require is the shovel, the mortar mix, and water, and a wheel barrow,
or you can actually do it on a mud board.
So without further adieu, make sure we've got our safety glasses on.
Put the mortar straight into the wheel barrow just be careful not to over spill.
It's quite fine this pre-mix as it's got the cement and lime already mixed through it.
Now like I said the most important part with this is to not overdo the water.
If you put to much water in to start with then you have to open up another bag, and
for this purpose we don't need to do that.
Now when doing this the most important thing is to get underneath the back and then lift
the sides over.
So as you can see now we're starting to get a consistency that is right for laying bricks.
Needs a little bit more water.
So you can see that I'm farrowing through the mortar and it's most important to get
as many grooves as you can so that the water actually flows back inside into the mix and
it cleans right through it.
Now the beauty of this also is if you do make it a little bit too wet it's not the end of
the world.
Like it's not going to matter too much because the nature of the beast is it sets, it goes
hard so that if you do make it a little too wet you can just let it sit for 10 minutes,
15 minutes and she's going to be right, but obviously you don't want to get there and
prevention is better than cure.
So you can see from this we're nearly right.
And what I might do is just take it to my mud board, once again we want to put water
onto the mud board.
I'm just using a sheet of yellow tongue flooring.
Whenever you are using a pre-mixed mortar, always make sure that you take everything
out of the barrow and put it onto your work area, because if you leave any in the barrow
it will go hard, which makes the next mix really really hard to make and obviously it
gets hard and lumpy so make sure you get everything out of it.
Okay.
Now that we're on our mud board the most important thing now is to just go over the consistency
of the mortar.
Now you can see that this is just a little bit hard, you can see that it actually breaks
up a little bit you want to put it down, so the good idea is to make a hole in the center
of the mortar, just pour in a smidgen of water.
So now the best way to do this is to start from the outside and throw it back out onto
the center.
I'll turn it over back to the middle.
Now that's not too bad there.
I can put a little bit more into it.
Now you can see what I'm doing here from side to side.
This is just essentially mixing up as well, it's another form of doing what I've done
in the barrel but obviously to do it in the barrel is much quicker
But once you get to this stage, you'll do this 20 times a day as a brick layer, just
knock up your board to make sure it's still the right consistency and still good to work
with.
So you just take it from the outside back to the center.
Now what this will do, it will get that really nice consistency which you're starting to
see now and it's also really great for your forearms.
Okay, we're done, the consistency is perfect we are ready to lay bricks.