Masonry Magazine July 2002 Page. 31
Do you go high or low?
With grouting lifts, there seem to be more opinions than there are choices. In the end, it's a matter of productivity- and if you have a choice.
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DO YOU TAKE YOUR BEST SHOT FROM UP ON TOP OR AT STAGES ALONG THE WAY TO THE TOP? IN OTHER WORDS, DO YOU USE HIGH-LIFT OR LOW-LIFT GROUTING TECHNIQUES?
In its simplest form, high-lift grouting is typically done with a grout or concrete pump, as high as 24 feet in one pour, and using large pours of grout," notes Stan Harwell, Eastern regional manager for Spec Mix, Mendota Heights, Minn. The Virginia-based Harwell continues, "There is even a movement today to increase that height to 42 feet. Low-lift grouting, on the other hand, is done in lifts up to about 4 feet, and sometimes every two or three courses of block."
According to Harwell, "There are two schools of thought. The contractors that like to pump think that they save money by waiting and having one crew do all the grouting at one time. They'll lay up as much wall as they can and then throw the bricklayers on another wall while the grouting team comes in and pumps the first one.
"The guys that do low-lift grouting swear that they're faster because they don't have to stop production. They'll have two guys just following behind the bricklayers as they lay their wall. As the wall goes up, laborers will work behind and, using 5 gallon buckets, dip grout out of the tub and pour it in or they'll use a Grout Hog."
MCAA member Bill Dentinger of Bill Dentinger, Inc., a mason contractor in St. Paul, Minn., voices this opinion: "Personally I like high-lift grouting for production reasons. As long as the core is large enough-an 8- or 12-inch block core-I like to grout in 8-foot lifts. With 12-inch block, you can go higher if you need to. For us, it works best if we can put in a cleanout and don't have to worry about the other side of the wall being finished."
However, he adds, "We do a lot of institutional work, jail cells and such. When you're in a partition wall in a cell, for example, low-lift grouting is really the only way to do it. The walls are too difficult to get the grout pump or hopper to a lot of times."
So the choice of high or low can be situational-sometimes one is better than the other because of the type of construction, the type of block or the location.
Getting high
THE MASONRY INSITTUTE OF WASHINGTON (MIW), for example, says that high-lift grouting is usually preferred over low-lift grouting because the contractor gains efficiency continued on page 30
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July 2002
Masonry 29