The day I stopped hand-mixing thinset for floor tile

I used to mix every bag of thinset by hand with a paddle drill, 20 minutes of stirring for each batch and my arms would be shot by lunch. Last month I finally rented a proper mortar mixer from Home Depot in Akron for 38 bucks a day, and it blew my mind how smooth the consistency came out. I figured I'd save money doing it the old way, but I was really just wasting time and getting lumpy coverage that caused a few tiles to lose bond. Now I just pay the rental fee on bigger jobs and it pays for itself in an hour. My crew thinks I'm crazy for talking about it like this, but anyone who's knelt on a floor for 6 hours knows the difference. Has anyone else made the jump to a real mixer, or do you still swear by the paddle method? My back wants to know.

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the_robin27d ago

Twenty minutes per batch by hand? That's brutal, I would've quit after day two. Sounds like your arms earned that mixer rental big time.