Another "Don't Do This" thread

[deaconjim]

I've been working on a small project for some time now. I have a spring that I want to develop to put running water in our barn. After digging out the origin of the spring, I found that it was seeping out of a large slab of granite.

I decided to build the spring box out of an abundance of natural stone that I have on the place. This is my first time doing stone masonry, so I'm learning as I go. I tend to work a little at a time, mixing up a batch of mortar, going as far as that will take me, and coming back another day for the next session.

One thing I have found is that, due to the irregular shape of the stone I'm using, a trowel just doesn't work as well as it would on block or brick. Oftentimes, I wind up using my hands to spread and smooth the mortar as I go. Until today that hasn't been a problem.

I know that cement products can be hard on the hands, but after doing this several times, I had suffered no ill effects (I work with my hands for a living, so they're fairly tough). I spent about an hour there today adding another course of stone, and by the time I was finished my fingers were raw and bleeding in several places. After washing up, I found that I had abraded some rather deep chunks out of the ends of my fingers. OUCH!

My hands and fingers are so sore I can can barely type. My finger tips are swollen and throbbing. I have to go to work tomorrow, and I know already that it's going to be a rough day. I don't know how I'm going to apply the mortar next time around, but you can be sure it won't involve my bare hands.

[MELOC]

barrier cream...

[deaconjim]

Originally Posted by MELOC

barrier cream...

More like leather. The abrasions are too deep for cream to help.

[overthrow]

rubber gloves

[GoldenCityMuse]

Buy some chemical rubber gloves next time. Or even use the blue nitrile gloves, I use them all the time when doing auto repairs, changing oil, messing with gasoline etc.

[Bat Farm]

I like to use a kitchen spatula for buttering mortar on odd shapes, the silicon scrapping a bowl kind, not the flipping burgers kind

Gold Bond medicated triple strength hand cream is wonderful for healing cement hands.

[fitwind]

OuCh !!! My DH did that 5 yrs ago fixing our chimney...... I forgot what he used, but his finger tips and hands were all torn up.....

[Cornhusker]

You aren't using mortar with fiberglass are you?

[Bearfootfarm]

Or even use the blue nitrile gloves

Those are the best.

[Old Vet]

Originally Posted by deaconjim

I know that cement products can be hard on the hands, but after doing this several times, I had suffered no ill effects (I work with my hands for a living, so they're fairly tough). I spent about an hour there today adding another course of stone, and by the time I was finished my fingers were raw and bleeding in several places. After washing up, I found that I had abraded some rather deep chunks out of the ends of my fingers. OUCH!

My hands and fingers are so sore I can can barely type. My finger tips are swollen and throbbing. I have to go to work tomorrow, and I know already that it's going to be a rough day. I don't know how I'm going to apply the mortar next time around, but you can be sure it won't involve my bare hands.

Try to use Bag balm on your hands. When I was working at a cement plant I used it all the time. It will heal your hands and make them smooth. When I worked with cement it drys the hands so much you need something to make them oily again. The cement plaint that I worked at had big tubs of it.

[snowshoehair]

Another vote for an old kitchen spatula here...

[deaconjim]

Originally Posted by overthrow

rubber gloves

Originally Posted by GoldenCityMuse

Buy some chemical rubber gloves next time. Or even use the blue nitrile gloves, I use them all the time when doing auto repairs, changing oil, messing with gasoline etc.

I have those on my service truck, but mine are too thin to have done any good. I'll need to get a box of the thicker ones.

[deaconjim]

Originally Posted by Cornhusker

You aren't using mortar with fiberglass are you?

No, it's just Type S mixed with thinset.

[tinknal]

Jim, it's not just abrasive, concrete can give you chemical burns. I suspect you are experiencing a little of both.

[deaconjim]

Originally Posted by Bat Farm

I like to use a kitchen spatula for buttering mortar on odd shapes, the silicon scrapping a bowl kind, not the flipping burgers kind

Gold Bond medicated triple strength hand cream is wonderful for healing cement hands.

Originally Posted by snowshoehair

Another vote for an old kitchen spatula here...

I may have to try that. Unfortunately, with my DW there is nothing old around to use (and yes, I am starting to worry about my hair turning gray ). I'll have to use a new spatula, but it beats shredding my hands.

At least now, when the kids are older, I can honestly tell them "I've worked on this farm until my fingers bled".

[7thswan]

I know the feeling from years of ceramic classes, even had blood poisoning a number of times because my cuticles got so bad. Deaconjim, use a large plastic,say a gallon zip lock. Fill with cement and cut the tip off one corner. Use like a pastery bag to get the cement in where you need it. Keep you hands dry inside whatever gloves you use, medicated foot powder will help.

[deaconjim]

The thing is, my hands aren't raw like I would have expected. The only problem is that there are several places that are cut, and some that have had chunks gouged out. I never felt it happen, I just started noticing some pain as I worked. By the time I was finished, I could barely hold onto the tools while I was cleaning up.

[Callieslamb]

Originally Posted by deaconjim

I may have to try that. Unfortunately, with my DW there is nothing old around to use (and yes, I am starting to worry about my hair turning gray ). I'll have to use a new spatula, but it beats shredding my hands.

At least now, when the kids are older, I can honestly tell them "I've worked on this farm until my fingers bled".

My local feed store had nitrile gloves this year - they are rubberish on one side and mesh on the other. they were great for gardening - easy to pull weeds but tough enough to last the whole year. They didn't work so well in paint thinner. You might try something like that since you really need the abrasives off your hand. They were $6 a pair so I bought four pairs.

As for a new kitchen tool - you will probably find that it will cost less than a man-tool from a hardware store. Buy the wife a new one (her choice of color) better than the one she has if you 'borrow' one from the kitchen.

[Le Petit Norman]

Sorry to hear about that.

Looks like you reach the point were you became allergic to mortar. It can happened over night with chemical products. I am a chemist by trade and have been working with chemical product for years without issue until I got allergic to them, make my shift funky as I still need to use them.

if you have glycerin available, use that it will help get your hand moisturized

Hope your hand heal quickly, keep them well protected until you have fully recovered and also use a lot of cream this winter as thing can get bad with cold winter

[fishhead]

Rubber gloves