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Got schooled on lime mortar by an old mason at a restoration job in Savannah

We were repointing a historic brick wall on Broughton Street and I was mixing a modern cement mortar. This guy, Frank, who's been laying brick since the 70s, walks over and just shakes his head. He explained that the original soft brick would crack with my hard mix, and showed me his 3:1 sand to lime ratio. I switched right then and the whole section went up way smoother. Anyone else run into this on old brickwork?
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3 Comments
val949
val94921d ago
Yeah, I learned that lesson the hard way on a Philadelphia row house. The lime mortar just moves with the old brick instead of fighting it. We switched to a similar mix and the whole project went better.
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river320
river32021d ago
Wait, you used the wrong mortar on a Philly row house? I mean, that's like the classic old brick mistake right there. Glad you figured it out before it got worse.
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the_linda
the_linda21d ago
Sounds a bit overblown to me.
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