Warning: cheap mortar mix almost cost me a whole retaining wall

I was using this store brand mortar mix to save $3 a bag on a small garden wall job in Medford. After about 3 days of curing, the joints started cracking and a few bricks just popped loose. Turns out the sand ratio was way off and it had no real bonding strength. Ended up tearing down half the wall and redoing it with Type S from a proper supplier. Any of you guys ever get burned by sketchy budget materials?

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piper_flores691mo ago

Used to be one of those guys who would grab whatever was cheapest at the big box store, thought mortar was mortar and sand was just sand. One time I patched a little stone step with the no name stuff and it crumbled to dust before winter even hit, had to chisel it all out while freezing my fingers off. That was the moment I started paying attention to the actual specs on the bag, because saving five bucks is not worth redoing a whole job or having a wall fall over on someone. Now I just go with the known brands even if they cost a bit more, because the headache of fixing cheap crap is way worse than the extra few dollars. Bet that store brand stuff is just made from whatever sand pile they had left over.