He's not laying bricks. Concrete copings and concrete do not absorb water.
Therefore Feb crap want do any good what so ever. On the other hand Unibond
will give a better adhesive.

Michael McNeil wrote in message
om...
"Keith" wrote in message
...
Don't use plasterziser, its crap. Use 4 to 1 sand/cement with Unibond
in
the
water, use the same water and paint both coping and receiving bed of
brickwork prior to spreading mortar.
Sand and Lime were use for century in the building trade. When cement
mortars came used, it was found that this type of mortar was heavy and
didn't
spread very well. So they introduced plasterzier in to the water. This
plasterziser put bubbles in the mortar when mixed. When the bricks are
pressed down the bubbles collapse making it easier to level the material
being laid. The problem arises when the weather starts to ware away the
mortar, its full of dried empty bubbles.
In a recent article in one of the construction mags, There are proposals
of
going back to Lime mortar for brickwork. One of the theories behind
the
use of Lime mortar is that in the case of any movement in brickwork the
joint gives, in cement mortar the bricks give and snap.


He's just messing with a patch of garden wall. The problem you
highlighted is due to the use of washing up liquid which won't tamp
down. You only use a few ccs -about a large spoonfull of Feb per
bucket of water. Bricklaying mix should be strong enough to suit the
brick and a little softer than the brick -which is controlled by the
ratio of cement to sand.

If you look at the mortar used in old buildings you will see that face
work is very close together. It meant that each brick needed to be
measured for the bonds to work. Modern courses are 1/2" apart allowing
plenty of scope to pull the joints together. Horses for courses. You
couldn't use lime mortar on 1/2" beds could you?

Not the same problems as stone though.