Old foreman told me to wet my bricks before laying in summer heat, I thought he was full of it

Last July we were framing a retaining wall for a driveway in Phoenix. Temp was pushing 106. This old timer named Chuck kept yelling at me to dunk the bricks before I laid them. I figured they'd dry out in like 5 mins anyway so what's the point. After about 2 hours the mortar started cracking and pulling away from one section. He came over and showed me how the dry bricks were sucking all the moisture out of the mud before it could set. Had to tear out a 4 foot section and redo it. Has anyone else ran into this or am I just the only one who had to learn the hard way?

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leo_lopez1h ago

Learned that one the hard way myself last summer on a block wall. Bricks were bone dry and the mortar was crumbling before I even got the next course on. Soaked em all in a wheelbarrow for a few minutes and it made a huge difference.