Masonry Magazine December 1986 Page. 41
Mortar Masters presently operates out of one plant in Dallas, with plans to expand to locations in Austin, San Antonio and Houston. The pre-mix mortar is delivered to the jobsite in a ready-mix truck and is dispensed into large plastic tubs.
PRE-MIX MORTAR BOOSTS PRODUCTIVITY IN MASONRY CONSTRUCTION
Mortar Masters, an innovative new company in Dallas, Texas, is taking on an old problem of the masonry industry: the "image" of slowness often associated with masonry trades. Mortar Masters is improving the mason contractor's productivity while lowering costs through better control of materials used, resulting in uniformity in mixes, strengths, and mortar color. Their answer is the production of pre-mix mortar, delivered to the jobsite in a ready mix truck, that is capable of achieving a working time of 72 hours or more.
Mortar Masters batches its pre-mix mortar at a plant in Dallas, Texas. Depending on the mason contractor's needs, the company will either deliver the mortar to the jobsite in a ready mix truck, where it is then dispensed into large plastic containers, or will fill these plastic tubs at the plant and then deliver on a flat-bed truck.
From the plant, Mortar Masters furnishes a pre-mix mortar that provides more consistent mixes and higher strengths than job-mixed mortar. Further quality control is ensured by metal labels which are affixed to each tub at the time it is filled. These indicate a batch number and the date the mortar was mixed and delivered.
After contractors are sold on the new concept, they usually retain the plastic tubs and move them from job to job. Using a central dispatcher, Mortar Masters oftentimes services two or three different jobs from the same ready mix truck. This not only allows for convenience in scheduling by the mason contractor but also permits better use of materials as the mortar left over from one day's work can be used the following day. The extended working time qualities of the pre-mix mortar also permit the option of having mortar delivered the day before a job is to start, meaning zero start-up time the mortar is there first thing in the morning and work begins immediately.
By eliminating on-site mixing and material handling, Mortar Masters provides substantial increases in productivity for the mason contractor by allowing him to work at his own pace and not one dictated by the mortar. According to one contractor, the pre-mix mortar concept cut 45 days off a completion date. "The job goes fast," he says, "because the mortar is easy to use. The masons take it directly from the tubs which move around the job on a lift truck. In fact, a job I had promised by mid-September would have been complete by July 31 had I not run out of brick. That's my biggest problem now-keeping enough brick on the jobsite to finish the job."
He has also had experience with black color pre-mix mortar and says the work area remained virtually spotless because there was no on-site mixing. "The color match from batch to batch was perfect," he adds. "There was no inconsistency at all."
Mortar Masters began operation in May, 1985, and, as owner Tom Norton explains, the company is producing pre-mix mortar using an extended-life mortar admixture called ELMAX, manufactured by Master Builders, Cleveland, Ohio. In some areas, a pre-mix mortar might have difficulty penetrating a market, but the concept seems right for Texas where masonry work is abundant. In the Dallas Metroplex alone an area with a population of nearly one million-over 700 mason contractors can be found.
In their first month of operation, Mortar Masters sold 130 yards of pre-mix mortar. By the end of June, that figure nearly tripled to 380 yards; in July, the monthly total climbed to 1,400 yards. "We've had very little difficulty selling to the masonry contractor," says Norton. "And once we've sold the contractor, he has never gone back to job-mixed mortar."