Mortar or Lime Mortar?

[The_DADDY]

19 hours ago, Top4719 said:

Looks like you've got a hairline crack down the brickwork possibly due to a bit of subsisdence, if you repoint it and it happens again a brick stitching kit with helical bars might be worth considering.

 

17 hours ago, mafya said:

I also think there has been some slight movement after looking at the picture, I had similar on my last house but after 8 years it didn’t re appear so like you said might be worth just keeping an eye on it..

Regarding subsidence. 

Oh yes this house has had that and all the others on our row have too.

Apparently it was connected with the building of the dual carriage way years ago. We don't notice it now but when we first moved in it was glaringly obvious 😂

Tbh I like living here though so I'm happy to put up with it 👍

[Meltman]

The coal mine across the road won't have helped either. 

[The_DADDY]

14 minutes ago, Meltman said:

The coal mine across the road won't have helped either. 

Very true. I didn't even know about it until just a few years ago. 

[Meltman]

7 minutes ago, The_DADDY said:

Very true. I didn't even know about it until just a few years ago. 

Rotherham Main, originally owned by John Brown, who also owned the steel works in Sheffield called the Atlas Works, hence Atlas Street near to you. John Brown and Thomas Firth amalgamated to form Firth Brown Lrd, later amalgamated with English Steel to form Sheffield Forgemasters. 

[The_DADDY]

1 minute ago, Meltman said:

Rotherham Main, originally owned by John Brown, who also owned the steel works in Sheffield called the Atlas Works, hence Atlas Street near to you. John Brown and Thomas Firth amalgamated to form Firth Brown Lrd, later amalgamated with English Steel to form Sheffield Forgemasters. 

Thank you very much for that. That's really interesting. 

[echo beach]

Like Top said lime mortar is used for heritage buildings. Builders used it before Portland cement came on the scene.

It is more flexible than modern cement mortar and, therefore, more tolerant to movement in buildings. It also allows walls to breathe if there is an ingress of damp.

 

echo.

[cuttsie]

13 minutes ago, echo beach said:

Like Top said lime mortar is used for heritage buildings. Builders used it before Portland cement came on the scene.

It is more flexible than modern cement mortar and, therefore, more tolerant to movement in buildings. It also allows walls to breathe if there is an ingress of damp.

 

echo.

Breathing walls , not built any of them ,  Ingress of damp ,All walls get wet , the cavity does the work now .

[cuttsie]

1 minute ago, cuttsie said:

Breathing walls , not built any of them ,  Ingress of damp ,All walls get wet , the cavity does the work now .

Unless some silly twaaaat fills the cavity with pumped in insulation and creates a bridge for the damp , con merchants like the damp injection nutters . 

[echo beach]

1 minute ago, cuttsie said:

Breathing walls , not built any of them ,  Ingress of damp ,All walls get wet , the cavity does the work now .

Aye cuttsie but in the past they didn’t have cavities.

My place has stone walls,  cross section built 2 feet apart filled with rubble and no d p c.

It’s a wonderland for field mice when they’re harvesting or in the cold dark winter.

Had them come up onto the raised hearth, run across, turn round and run back again.

Once when I was replacing a wooden lintel one ran across in the middle of the wall in front of my nose. Also had a couple of shrews visit over the years.

Who needs cartoons when you have live entertainment on the premises.😀

 

echo. 

[Arthur Ritus]

On 08/06/2024 at 22:17, Top4719 said:

Lime mortar is mostly for heritage properties and is more difficult to work with than the regular stuff.

What's the difference between the sandstone used to build "heritage buildings" and our own little homely castles?

 

Perhaps something to do with employing rough arsed builders that "av' bin doing it this way for years", along with "ge'it a squirt of fairy" and "just keep wettin' it darn",  they even used to cover up unused mortar up to use the next day hence the poor state of many of our buildings.

Stone or poor quality clay bricks are much better preserved with lime mortar, its softer, allows a little movement with out damage and wicks out moisture from surrounding blocks - a sacrificial act which may result in it having to be touched up in another 50 - 100 years .

Back to topic, you probably have finished the job now Daddy but your bricks look good quality (not flaking) and should be happy enough with ordinary portland cement, if you are only doing part of the wall you will want to try to match the colour.

Recommend avoiding builders sand (if you do you will want grey) as the stuff we seem to be getting now is so rich in clay you could stick it on a potters wheel and make a Sheffielder's urn out of it. The clay weakens the cement a bit like talcing over glue on your inner tube and needs more cement  to compensate which is more water and so shrinks more, a washed (river) sand would be better if you can get some. Last lot I did i sieved some sharp sand, (that gets you some funny looks). With 5 parts sand 1 part opc and 1 part 3.5 NHL it gave an almost white slightly grey colour, no shrinkage and easy enough to apply.  The Lime makes the mortar "fattier" and easier to use, to plasticiser traps air in the mix for similar effect but i prefer the lime.. 
 

To do a really professional job make sure you are showing at least 4" of bum cleavage.