What’s The Difference Between Mortar and Cement?

Mortar is a mixture of sand and cements that is most often used to build brick or block walls. In my experience, the terms cement and concrete are often used interchangeably, but they are actually different. Concrete is made up of three basic components: water, aggregate (rock, sand, or gravel) and Portland cement. Cement, usually in powder form, acts as a binding agent when mixed with water and aggregates. This combination, or concrete mix, will be poured and harden into the durable material with which we are all familiar.

Portland cement is not a brand name, but the generic term for the type of cement used in virtually all concrete. Cement comprises from 10 to 15 percent of the concrete mix, by volume. Through a process called hydration, the cement and water harden and bind the aggregates into a rocklike mass. This hardening process continues for years, which is why concrete gets stronger as it gets older.

Mortar is used to hold building materials such as brick or stone together. It is composed of a thick mixture of water, sand, and cement. The water is used to hydrate the cement and hold the mix together.

What’s the difference between Mortar and Cement?

“Both are masonry products used in building and construction. Cement is the binding agent, whereas mortar is a product composed of cement, sand and lime.”

It’s a simple question that continues to confound homeowners and contractors alike. Both are masonry products used in building and construction. Cement is the binding agent, whereas mortar is a product composed of cement, sand and lime. Concrete is a product composed of cement, sand and gravel. Although there are different types of cement available on the market today, they all work in essentially the same way. They all create an adhesive bond when mixed with water that hardens over time to bind other materials together into one solid mass.

If you’re in the market for a new home, or if you’ve ever flipped through the channels on a rainy Saturday afternoon and ended up watching one of those home improvement shows, you already know that building a new home involves a lot of decisions. One of the most important, but often overlooked, is what kind of mortar or cement to use.

Cement and mortar are not the same thing. In fact, they are very different from each other when it comes to the ingredients and uses. That’s why it’s important to understand the difference between them when choosing which one is right for your project.

What Is Cement?

Cement is a powdery ingredient of both concrete and mortar, and is made up of lime, silica, alumina, iron, and gypsum. It acts as a binder to adhere the rock, sand, or gravel that makes up concrete together. Cement can be mixed with water to form mortar or mixed with aggregates and water to make concrete.

Cement is used in projects that require more strength than just dirt or gravel alone can provide. It’s also used as an ingredient in mortar to bond bricks together.

Mortar and cement are not the same product. Cement is a mineral (based on a specific recipe) that is ground into powder and mixed with water to form a paste, which will harden upon curing. Mortar is made from cement and various aggregates, such as sand or gravel.

Mortar is used to hold building materials such as brick or stone together. It is not as strong as cement, but it has stronger adhesive properties and is often used as a bonding agent between bricks, concrete block, stone, and many other masonry materials.

Cement is typically limited to applications that can withstand high heat; it can last for years without disturbing because of its strength and durability. Mortar is made to be used as a binding agent or glue when building with bricks or blocks.

Because cement lasts longer than mortar, it’s used in projects that need long-term structural integrity. Mortar mixes are used where shorter-term strength requirements are needed. It’s also used in the mixing of plaster, grout and stucco solutions because of its ability to bind well with other compounds.

Portland cement is not a brand name, but the generic term for the type of cement used in virtually all concrete, just as stainless is a type of steel and sterling a type of silver. Cement comprises from 10 to 15 percent of the concrete mix, by volume. Through a process called hydration, the cement and water harden and bind the aggregates into a rocklike mass. This hardening process continues for years, which is why concrete gets stronger as it gets older.

The key difference between mortar and concrete is in the size of the aggregate (stone or granules) that forms its structure. The mortar mix contains only fine aggregate — sand — and no coarse aggregate; it’s essentially filler mixed with cement paste that fills in between coarse aggregates in a concrete mix. Mortar is therefore much finer than concrete. It’s used to stick together masonry units such as bricks, blocks and stones. Concrete typically contains coarse aggregates that vary in size from very large rocks to fine sand particles.

Mortar is the bonding material between bricks, concrete block, stone, and many other masonry materials. It is made from Portland cement, lime, sand, and water in varying ratios. Each of the standard mortar mixes—Types N, M, S, and O—has different performance characteristics for different building applications.

Cement is the binding agent in both concrete and mortar. It is commonly made of limestone, clay, shells, and silica sand, with limestone being the most prevalent ingredient. These materials are crushed and combined with other ingredients (including iron ore), and then heated to about 2,700 F. This material, called clinker, is ground into a fine powder. The final step is to add about 5 percent gypsum to control the setting time of the finished mix.

Concrete is made up of aggregates (typically coarse aggregate such as gravel or crushed rocks and fine aggregate such as sand) bonded together with a fluid cement that hardens over time—most frequently in the past a lime-based cement binder such as lime putty, but sometimes with other hydraulic cements such as a calcium aluminate cement or Portland Cement. Concrete can be used in virtually any construction project where an extremely strong building material is required.

Cement is an ingredient in concrete. It acts as the glue or binding agent in concrete. It’s composed of calcium, silica and small amounts of aluminum and iron. Cement is manufactured through a closely controlled chemical combination of calcium, silicon, aluminum, iron and other ingredients.

Concrete refers to a mixture of aggregates (usually sand, gravel and crushed stone), portland cement and water. The most common way to mix concrete is in a rotating drum mixer or in a mortar mixer. Concrete can also be mixed by hand (hand-mixed concrete) but this is not that common today because it is harder to achieve uniformity with hand mixing.