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Switched to a grout bag for my fireplace brick and ended up with a way cleaner face
Last weekend I repointed about 40 square feet of brick around my fireplace using a grout bag instead of a pointing trowel, and I was honestly surprised how much cleaner the face of the brick stayed. I mixed the mortar a bit on the wet side, filled the bag, and just squeezed it into the joints, then tooled it after it set up a little. I figured I would save maybe 10 minutes but it cut my cleanup time way down because I wasn't smearing mortar all over the brick faces. The downside is the bag can clog if your mix is too stiff, so I had to keep a bucket of water and a spare tip handy. I also learned you have to cut the tip bigger than you think or you will be there all day fighting it. For small repair jobs like this I might never go back to the trowel, but I am curious if anyone here uses a grout bag on bigger jobs or if it just does not scale. What mix ratio do you all run in the bag so it flows but still sets hard?
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elizabeth_king19d ago
What ratio are you actually running in the bag right now? I ask because "a bit on the wet side" can mean a lot of things, and that number is the whole ballgame with a grout bag. Too thin and it runs down the face and you lose all that clean work you just did, plus the joints shrink and crack when they dry. Too stiff and you are fighting clogs every two feet, which is exactly what you ran into.
Have you tried mixing to roughly the same consistency as peanut butter and letting it sit for ten minutes before you load the bag? That rest time lets it soak up the water and it flows way better without being runny.
Also, do you mix small batches or one big bucket? On a job that size I would guess you need to mix maybe two or three small ones so the mortar does not start to set up in the bag on you.
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