Mortar, grout and inspection records, filed by wall and date, with every missing one listed.

A masonry job closes out with paper from several directions. Your foreman has daily logs and notes about which wall was grouted and when. The testing agency sends mortar, grout and prism reports. The special inspector and the project inspector send their own. Someone on your side has to pull those together, by wall and by date, so the owner, the general contractor or the design team can see that each wall has what the contract asked for.

For the test, AI reads copies of those records and assembles the closeout file: a table by wall and date with each mortar sample, grout sample, prism set, weather entry and inspection report beside it, and a list of the walls or dates with no record. It doesn't say whether a number is acceptable. Your reviewer compares it, line by line, with the file your team actually turned in.

The sampling plan differs on every job. The 2025 California Building Code's masonry chapter for public schools, state essential services buildings and hospitals, in Section 2105A.3, wants a mortar sample on each of 3 successive working days at the start of work and at least weekly after that, and grout sampled for each mix design, each day it is placed and at least every 5,000 square feet of wall. Massillon's Eastside school asks for tests on each 5,000 square feet and, for each wall construction type, one prism set at 7 days and one at 28 under ASTM C1314, the Standard Test Method for Compressive Strength of Masonry Prisms. The University of Houston's section for multi-story load-bearing work asks for three sets at each age before construction, and SUNY Fredonia's Gregory Hall stair tower section adds a set before work starts. The draft counts what that job's own section requires and shows each record beside it.

Prisms and cores change what has to exist. Under the same California section, mortar and grout tests drop away when prisms are used during construction. DSA's form 103-19 calls for the prism method above a design strength of 2,000 psi and lists core-drilled samples for the laboratory of record unless an exemption applies. Section 2105A.4 sets two cores per building for each 5,000 square feet of wall, taken no sooner than 7 days after grouting, with the agency reporting each core's location, what it saw and which were shear tested. Hospitals under OSHPD 1 and 4 keep at least two cores per 10,000 square feet even when a nondestructive method such as thermography stands in for coring. And the Concrete Masonry Association of California and Nevada notes that no ASTM requirement makes field-sampled mortar meet a strength number, so the draft records a field mortar result as data, with no pass or fail beside it.

Preblended mortar trades tests for paperwork. DSA's PR 20-01, revised July 13, 2023, lets a project under DSA jurisdiction exempt preblended mortar from sampling and testing. Unless a valid evaluation report covers it, the tests are replaced by a certificate of compliance naming the job's DSA application number, mill test reports for cement and lime, and a quality control report dated within 12 months. Every delivery then needs a ticket with a serial number, the truck or silo number for unpackaged mortar, the mortar type and the quantity. The mortar has to meet ASTM C270, the Standard Specification for Mortar for Unit Masonry, and testing can return if its quality looks questionable. The project inspector keeps the approval and tickets in the job file, so dates with preblended mortar and no ticket go on the list.

Weather is a daily record held against a number. DSA's form lists preparation, construction and protection of masonry below 40 degrees or above 90 as a periodic inspection item, which the project inspector may perform if DSA specifically approves. The Concrete Masonry and Hardscapes Association's TEK 03-01C explains the clock: protect grouted masonry if the minimum daily temperature is forecast under 40 in the first 48 hours, and ungrouted work if the mean daily temperature is forecast under 40 in the first 24. Massillon's section bars spreading mortar beds more than 48 inches ahead, or waiting more than a minute to set a unit, above 100 degrees or at 90 with wind over 8 miles per hour, though the same TEK says those two limits are no longer requirements. That is why the draft quotes the section the job was bid under. The Masonry Advisory Council's note for hot, windy days adds mortar used within 2 hours and fog spraying at least 3 times a day until the wall is three days old. The draft shows each day's reading, what was recorded about protection, and the days with neither.

Inspection reports come in their own shapes. Boise's statement of special inspections sets three levels, and observing the preparation of grout and mortar specimens and prisms is not required at Level 1, periodic at Level 2 and continuous at Level 3. DSA files masonry inspection on form 291 from the laboratory or form 292 from an independent inspector. The Ohio School Design Manual adds a water test of the cavity, with no more than 3 veneer courses above flashing before a testing lab representative has watched and photographed it, and Northern Arizona requires an inspection before flashing is covered. SUNY Fredonia holds grout until inspectors have verified the grout spaces and reinforcement, so the file has to show that the inspection came before the pour. Your reviewer will look first at walls with no report, dates that don't line up, prism ages, weather days with no entry and records filed under the wrong wall.

If your reviewer says yes, new field records and lab reports get the same treatment for about 30 days.

Your project manager reads every file before it goes to a general contractor, owner or design team.

The fixed price is agreed before you sign. Anything after this job is priced on its own, and monthly support begins once a job is running.