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Wrote off lime mortar for years, then the crew doing the 1890s church in Wheeling showed me the wall
I always figured lime was soft old-timey stuff you only touch on historic jobs, so when the GC said we were using it on a repoint in Wheeling I figured we'd be back with portland within a year. Two winters later that wall hasn't cracked once while the portland section on the same building down the block is spiderwebbed all to hell. Any of you use lime in freeze-thaw country, or is it just a historic building thing for you?
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danielm808d ago
Been reading up on this stuff since a guy on another forum swore by lime for anything pre-1930 and honestly the freeze-thaw thing comes up a lot. The idea is lime can flex a little with the wall when water gets in and freezes, while portland is too hard and just fights it until something gives. Your two winters pretty much prove it. I read that lime also lets the wall breathe so moisture works its way out instead of getting trapped and popping the face off. Sounds like the old timers knew what they were doing before we all switched to portland.
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