Replies

1. 
   rez | Oct 30, 2004 02:27am | #1

   Hiya tony, Welcome to Breaktime.

   In the event you don't find what you need from the posters here, I noticed Taunton has a couple of their old articles on repointing brick available for viewing with Acrobat thru the FineHomebuilding Home page.

   I believe you can also purchase articles or order backissues with articles specifically dealing with repointing brick. Issues #86 and #89 I believe it was.

   If you do a Search the information will come up for you.

    

2. 
   ponytl | Oct 30, 2004 04:13am | #2

   i do this way more than i want to...  i've had 3-4 guys on one project for almost 6 months now...

   how i do it...  waterblast it...  with as big a pressure washer as you can get.. i like the turbo nozzles  but also use the finest point nozzle i can find to just hit the joints

   at 70 years old you should have portland in your mortar... anything before that chances are it's a lime mortar...  which imho is better... it's self sealing, softer, and lets things move (ever notice in 100yo building that are 4-5 courses thick there are no expansion joints)

   we use grout bags to apply the new mortar.... the mortar mix i use is  3parts portland 1 part lime to 5 parts sand and i add liquid dish soap to the mix...  if your bricks are old and not real fired (spray water on em and if most of it is soaked into the brick) then you need to keep the wall wet before you point... and after the mortar has set (3-4 hours) soak it again... and a few times a day for a week or so after...

   i usually start with white portland and add grey until i get a formula that matches...

   what you don't want is a mortar thats harder than the brick... if you have old brick that soaks up alot of water... you need more lime & less portland...  the more lime the softer the finished mortar... if your mortar is harder than the brick in the freeze thaw  it will break your bricks...  expect that 3 guys can cover 200-300 sf a day...

   some will tell you all the joints need to be ground/cut to at least 1" deep before pointing...  well yeah maybe if you plan on keep'n the place for the next 150 years... but thats a huge expense ton of dust and most guys end up chew'n up ur brick and never get'n to the 1" depth unless ur look'n... anything around 1/2 i've had good luck with and have seen even 1/4" work ok (old work that i know has lasted 50 years at around 1/4" and 90% of it is still good... i'm fix'n/patch'n the other 10%)

   pony