Picked 3/8 inch trowel over 1/2 inch on a 40 ft block wall in Fresno, mortar sat right

Gavin Garcia · 2026-10-12T19:50:02.887093+00:00

Last month I had a block wall job in Fresno, about 40 ft long, and I was going back and forth on which trowel to use for the mortar bed. I usually grab the 1/2 inch out of habit, but the block was a lighter weight unit and the 1/2 inch kept squeezing mortar out the joints. I switched to a 3/8 inch trowel about ten blocks in and the bed sat flat with way less cleanup on the face. Finished the wall with almost no smearing to scrub off the next morning. Anybody else change trowel size based on the block weight, or do you just run one size no matter what?

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Picked 3/8 inch trowel over 1/2 inch on a 40 ft block wall in Fresno, mortar sat right | Bricklayers - Free To Speak