Rebuilding brick wall

BlazingSaddler

Hi all, absolute amateur here!, a few bricks in the wall at the front of my garden became loose and were pushed out, about 8 in total, so I thought I'd have a crack at rebuilding it myself, now I have never used mortar before so I thought I'd take the easy option and bought some readymix sand and cement. I mixed it with some water and got to what I thought was a nice paste, but when I put it onto the wall / bricks it seemed to dry almost instantly and there wasn't enough 'give' in it to line the bricks up properly. It seemed too sandy to me, adding more water didn't really do it. I carried on regardless and expect it to fall down very soon! Can somebody give their thoughts on what should be a 10 minute job if I knew what I was doing please?!

Spread

Wet the bed first and dunk the brick which you are using in clean water just before laying.

Dupont

is there plasticiser in it? clay bricks do dry out very quick,was building some a while ago and labourer was jointing them straight after i built them

Jonny Harris

Hi
Those bags of readymix mortar are always terrible to work with. The older hardware shops used to sell small amounts of neat cement. Mixed with building sand and a squirt of washing up liquid will give you a workable mortar.
Job Done. Good Luck.
Ps. a mix of 4sand 1cement is acceptable