Currently there is a high level of ignorance in what respects rehabilitation and conservation of earth buildings. It is necessaryto use a mortar compatible with these kinds of supports. Therefore, it is essential to understand the behaviorof earth mortars. It is known that the amount of water used in mixing has great influence on physical characteristics,workability and consequently, application -particularly with the presence of clays.With the objective of filling up the knowledge void, characterization tests were performed on fresh and hardened earthmortars, with four different earths, in which six different water levels were added. Another objective is to directly assessthe workability through applications that were made by masons in rammed earth samples. After analyzing theresults it was observed that the shrinkage and workability are strongly influenced by the water/dry material, affectingthe viability of a mortar. However, the mason is a highly important factor in its application of a mortar.