Mortar measured by gauge box, not by shovel
The mix ratio is the one number on your site that changes every single batch, costs real money, and is invisible in the finished wall. A crew working "by eye" is not being dishonest — they are being approximate, all day, in the direction that makes mixing easier, which is less cement.
What to look at
- An actual gauge box on site, not a headpan used as one
- Cement counted in whole bags per batch so the ratio can be checked
- The same ratio at four in the afternoon as at nine in the morning
How to check it yourself
Proportions are by VOLUME using a gauge box of known size — one box of cement to the specified number of boxes of sand — not by counting shovels, which vary with how tired the man is. A 1:6 mortar is common for general brick masonry and 1:5 or 1:4 where the specification calls for it; richer mixes go where the drawing says, not where the mason prefers. Watch a batch being made rather than asking what the ratio is.
Where this comes from: IS 2250:1981 — Code of practice for preparation and use of masonry mortars; IS 456:2000 cl. 9 for the batching principle (indian standard or building code)
More masonry and wall checks
- Photograph before this is covered
- Bricks or blocks soaked before laying, and joints filled
- Masonry cured, and lintels bear the specified length
- Laterite blocks: soaked properly, and laid with the right mortar
- Burnt clay bricks: water absorption within the standard
- Concrete blocks: cured and aged before they go into a wall
- AAC blocks: thin-bed mortar, and never soaked
- Fly ash bricks: to the standard, and the right mortar for them
- Sand bulking allowed for before the mix is batched
- Mortar used within its working time, and never re-tempered