Hot take: Hand mixing beats paddle mixers for small jobs

I see everyone on sites loading up their paddle mixers for a half pallet of block. Did that last Tuesday on a garage foundation in Austin and spent 20 minutes cleaning the thing after. Mixed three batches by hand with a hoe and trowel and was done quicker total. The mortar stays wetter too since you're not aerating it. Anyone else find paddles more hassle than they're worth on tight pours?

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thea_carter4mo ago

Watched my neighbor mix mortar with a garden trowel and a five-gallon bucket last week, somehow made it work without any fuss.

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wyatt5134mo ago

My neighbor did the same thing when he patched his driveway last fall, used an old paint stirrer on a drill to mix the batch in a beat-up wheelbarrow. @thea_carter, that's exactly the kind of scrappy approach that works fine for small jobs if you're careful. He had to rinse the trowel every few minutes to keep the mortar from crusting on, but the patch held up through winter without cracking.

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