brick sand

[waynebergman]

Thanks again everyone for the help on my finish coat over the dome. I will be using the type N mortar with brick sand.
This must sound like a stupid question but I am not finding from the building stores sand labeled as "BRICK" sand and I dont know if the sand they are selling labeled play sand will do. The kids working at the lumber yard arent real sure either. I guess my question is, Is the brick sand fine or course or what can I use or look for if the products are not labeled as brick sand.....Thanks again and merry christmas to all. I will be starting my 7 day cureing of the oven the day after boxing day....wayne

[Acoma]

Wayne, I would ask the brick yards. It just doesn't seem like it would, but if so, then we learn something new. Do you have any spare bricks? If so, cut a bunch up and get the brick reminents out. Accumulate as much as you will need. You can get a bunch quickly that way. You know the temp tolerance is there too.

[Mojoe]

Brick sand is very fine, primarily used in mortar joints between bricks. The fine sand makes for cleaner, more presentable mortar joints when striking/tooling. The play sand will be lighter in color and may not be as clean as brick sand. I'm sure there are very few quality control measures in the manufacture/package of play sand.

I may be sounding a bit negative regarding the use of play sand but when I ran out of brick sand on my chimney I used play sand to finish the last eight courses. I compared the play sand to Quikrete's medium sand and saw very little difference. Sure I had to pick a pebble or two out during tooling but well worth the $3/bag savings. I used a very dark colored Type-N mortar so the color of sand was not a big concern.