Masonry news contractor tip

Masonry Construction, Nov-Dec, 2004 by Damian Lang

Are your blocklayers standing around waiting for grout at the end of a block run?

We've all seen it. There's a better way that saves both time and money. Lets say your crew is scheduled to top out a run at 2:00pm. So, you call the ready mix company ahead of time to make sure grout is delivered precisely at that time. But, the grout doesn't show up on time. (Has this ever happened to you? It has to us.) What is it costing you to have employees wait on grout? If we really put a pencil to it, the cost is enormous at best. And, it's all because we can't completely control the delivery on our jobsite.

When it is time to grout, we have two options. One is to move to another run while laborers grout. But, to do this, there are costs to consider. When a crew moves from one wall to another it is almost like starting a new day. We lose valuable time relocating trowels, levels, mortarboards, and most importantly, people. The second option is to have grout available so employees can grout and continue on up the wall. The only problem there is controlling the time the grout is available which is not always so easy when depending on a delivery truck. At Lang Masonry we like to grout right while we are going up the wall. If the run is scheduled to be topped out at 2:00pm, we have a laborer mixing grout at 1 :45. As soon as the last course is laid, we can grout while our bricklayers are building leads and striking over the wall. Then, we continue right on up wall. There's no stopping and relocating people that way. It works great for us.

We have recently been awarded a job that requires 900 yards of grout. We will be mixing virtually all the grout on site. By mixing on site, we estimate we'll have $45 per yard in grout material. This is a savings of $40 per yard on material. That's $36,000 in savings on the cost of the grout on this one job! Not to mention we are in control of the timing so we will have grout at the precise time we need it, instead of counting on someone else to show up on time.

How do we plan to do this efficiently without adding labor hours to the project? First, we will use a 20 cubic foot mortar mixer that can mix of a yard of grout at one time. We load this mixer with sand and pea gravel by using a skid steer loader and a bucket that measures the amount of material being put in the mixer for consistent psi breaks. (This can be done with a bucket on a forklift as well). One laborer can mix 3/4 of a yard in five minutes! Then, we dump the grout into a Grout Hog to deliver it to the wall and down the cores. By the time the Grout Hog gets back to the mixer, the laborer will have another batch of grout mixed and ready to go. We grout the run in minutes and the men continue right on up the wall. Try this on your jobsite. I think you will be amazed at the time and money your employees can save by controlling the wait time on your job.