Other Work

This stonework was repointed because the original had failed. A lime mortar was used, as was originally. This helps the stone to breathe and allow moisture to escape. The mortar needs to be softer than the stone to help protect it. Cement mortars are quite ofter harder than the masonry that it surrounds. This can cause the masonry to unduly weather, often leaving the cement mortar protruding, thus attracting more moisture which in turn causes more damage. The other common problem with cement mortar is that it does not allow the masonry to move, so that when the structure is put under stress, the masonry will crack as well as the mortar. With a lime mortar this is quite often not the case.

With this job we were to remove some of the decayed brickwork and replace them. Clean down the remaining and then re-point. As with the masonry shown above we used a lime mortar.