Mud Work Hints and Methods

[John Bridge]

Great work, John. You've come a long way in a fairly short time.

The trim plumbing is trendy, but I always think about having to wipe the shower down each time it's used. Things like that can really slow you down.

[jwmezzanotte]

Haha

With at least a couple year break too!
I went through the foam board thing. From Kerdi board, to Wedi, and still using a fair bit of hydroban board.
But once you have set on mud, you get spoiled👍

[jwmezzanotte]

I’m still using quicktete “mortar mix” for brick/block. I’ve been adding lime, and have it nailed now.
That last tub I could toss a scoop of mud at the wall and it would hang. It’s about 3 days old now still showing no signs of shrinking or cracking. I think I’ve found the sweet spot in my mix.

To think I was getting my first jobs done with no lime, no wonder I struggled 😆

[Davy]

It's good to hear you've got the mix fined tuned. If it's the premixed brick mud then it would already have some lime in it. As long as the sand grit isn't too fine, it should work fine.

The Qwickrete scratch and brown I've been getting lately has had courser sand than usual. It still hangs well just makes a rough surface.

[John Bridge]

Back when I was doing expensive custom homes, all the floors were floated, so I would have a pile of sharp sand delivered. I always had three or four showers to float, too, and instead of trying to get in a small quantity of masonry sand I'd just float them with the sharp sand. Wasn't the easiest thing in the world to do, but it works. Takes a bit more thinset to set the tile. That's all.

Also, I don't think my mud ever hung on the hawk if I turned it upside down. Some guys like really sticky mud and some don't. 'Course, I always ended up with a fair amount on my shoes when floating walls.

[tilelayer]

John,

All i use is concrete sand for my mud and when i tile on it the next day i swear i use so much thinset. Never could figure out why compaired to tiling over cbu

[Just In Tile LLC]

Shawn I just saw your dam post I do mine in the same order and also do the top the same I think. Using the L edges as your screeds to cut the top perfectly.

John Mezz: Mortar mix I had very dialed in, and not one crack, never added lime to it but I could imagine it would help things. You might have already said but how much lime do you add per bag. Guesstimate is fine

Edit: Just read the half of shovel of lime per bag

[smifwal]

now this is how you sling mud




https://youtu.be/vU9YOKk0_tE

[Lou_MA]

My back hurts just watching that

[smifwal]

You should watch the next video a little guy with a shovel

[smifwal]

How would a guy calculate materials needed for a scratch coat brown coat per sqft?

[Davy]

For scratch coats, I normally get 15-20 sq ft out of an 80 lb sack of scratch and brown. Most of my scratch coats are pretty thin since most tiles these days don't have mud cap.

[smifwal]

thanks Davy

[Just In Tile LLC]

Bench I floated today with a plywood jig. You can see a smidge of baking soda I used to set the face up a little quicker.

[Davy]

Nice job.