- 1). Put on gloves, a dust mask and safety glasses before working with mortar.
- 2). Pour dry mortar mix into a wheelbarrow, trough or bucket, depending on how much mortar you need. For small projects or repairs, buckets hold enough mix, medium-sized jobs require a wheelbarrow and large jobs call for a trough.
- 3). Use a flat shovel to turn the dry mortar to mix it and blend it together.
- 4). Make a hill in your container with the dry mortar mix.
- 5). Create a hole in the center of the dry mortar mix hill with a hoe. Use a hand-held garden shovel if you are mixing in a bucket.
- 6). Use a small bucket to add clean water to the hole in the center of the dry mix. Fill the hole about halfway. Do not use recycled water or dirty water, as this will compromise the set strength of the mortar.
- 7). Drag the hoe through the mix from all angles, turning and blending the mix and water. Add water as needed to create a toothpaste-like consistency.
- 8). Test the consistency of the mortar by slicing the mortar with a trowel. Cut a slice into the side of the mortar with the end of the trowel. If the cut closes, the mortar is too wet, if the edges of the cut crack and crumble, the mortar is too dry. If the cut remains in the mortar unchanged, the consistency is correct.
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