In the hardscape industry, we use two specialty hammers or mallets for specific applications. These are the rubber mallet and a dead blow hammer. Both have different applications and help us achieve a quality install of pavers and retaining wall block for our hardscape projects. It is important to note the different applications because using a rubber mallet when you should be using a dead blow hammer will require a lot more energy to achieve the result you are looking for, whereas using a dead blow hammer when you should be using a rubber mallet will cause materials to chip and crack.
Dead Blow Hammer vs Rubber Mallet
When installing pavers and retaining walls in our hardscapes, these two tools help to ensure pavers and retaining walls are level to one another during the installation. This is key to the fundamental system that is being installed. A retaining wall that is not built level will have the force of gravity working against it along with the force being applied to the retaining wall from behind it to eventually cause that wall to fail. A paver installed that is not level with the surrounding pavers will stand out and possibly even cause a tripping hazard if it is too high or pooling water if it is too low.
This is where these specialty tools play a role in being able to hammer down a paver that is too high into the bedding layer or a retaining wall block into the base to ensure a quality installation of both these applications. However, it is important to note the difference between the two and when to use one or the other.
What is a Rubber Mallet
A rubber mallet is exactly as it is described. A mallet where the head is made of rubber. This rubber absorbs much of the impact made when striking an object causing the mallet to bounce away from an object. The rubber absorbing that impact allows the material being hammered to not have a significant strike force against it which may cause chipping and cracking. This is the major difference between a rubber mallet and a dead blow hammer. This also affects the application as when to use it rather than a dead blow hammer.
Use a rubber mallet on surfaces that are exposed in the final result. This includes pavers, porcelain, natural stone, caps, or even exposed sides of retaining walls if you need to get that wall inline with other blocks. The rubber will protect those surfaces from chipping or cracking with the impact that they experience with every swing.
It will require more blows to the surface than a dead blow hammer would because much of that impact is being absorbed by the rubber mallet, but it will ensure that the exposed surface in the end product is protected. If you were to use a dead blow hammer, the chances of that product breaking is extremely high.
When choosing a rubber mallet, it is important to find a mallet that is non-marking. This means that it will not leave a mark on the object you are hitting. We find that white rubber mallet heads leave less marks on materials than black rubber mallet heads. Rubber mallets can be found at fairly inexpensive prices and do not tend to break as frequent as dead blow hammers do. Try these for an inexpensive rubber mallet option in your tool case.
What is a Dead Blow Hammer
A dead blow hammer absorbs minimal force and transfers that energy all the way down through the material that you are hitting. There are several types of dead blow hammers including solid plastic heads and others that are filled with beads that help to transfer the entire energy of a strike down through the material you are hitting.
These are especially useful when trying to level retaining wall block as you are hitting an area of the block that is not exposed in the final product and it allows you to use less force or strikes to be able to get that wall block completely level. With that energy transferring right through the material and the dead blow hammer absorbing minimal force, there is no bounce back of that hammer when striking an object, whereas a rubber mallet will bounce back off that material as it is hit with how much it absorbs the impact.
Our favorite tool to use for either application is the Halder Mallet because it has interchangeable heads and you can buy heads that cover the rubber mallet application and a dead blow hammer application. You can have one side of the mallet with a rubber end and the other with a plastic end so you do not need to have two mallets in your tool case and instead just have one. You can also replace the head and the handle if either of these were to break. This makes it a versatile tool. The downside would be the price.
If you are looking for an economical solution, these are an industry favorite for dead blow hammers because of their inexpensive cost. They are made of plastic with an encased metal head with metal beads inside. These beads help to transfer the energy down through the material you are hitting with no rebound like a rubber mallet. The downside to these are that they are susceptible to breaking open over time causing all of the beads within the hammer to scatter around the area.
Buy the right dead blow hammer size for the application. Smaller retaining wall blocks require smaller dead blow hammers, whereas larger format retaining wall blocks or even larger natural stone blocks require larger dead blow hammers. We typically do not use anything under 2 pound dead blow hammers when levelling retaining wall block. When installing larger format blocks, opt for the larger 9 pound dead blow hammer.