repointing old stone wall basement help

[birdleaf12]

Hey there,

I just purchased my first house and it was built in the late 1800's - 1870ish.

The basement is all stone walls and it seems in some areas the mortar is wearing away and i'd like to repoint it and get it nice and solid for years to come.

The only thing I am stuck on is what mortar to use. I bought quickerete mortar mix (type n) which, from my reading seems to be along the lines of what you want - However, i'm reading that some say not to use a mortar that has any portland cement content at all and just to basically use a lime mortar.

Do any of you know what the best choice/solution is for this?

If the quickrete mortar mix is not the solution - where do I go about getting the recommended mortar.

Thank you very much.

 

[bholler]

Hey there,

I just purchased my first house and it was built in the late 1800's - 1870ish.

The basement is all stone walls and it seems in some areas the mortar is wearing away and i'd like to repoint it and get it nice and solid for years to come.

The only thing I am stuck on is what mortar to use. I bought quickerete mortar mix (type n) which, from my reading seems to be along the lines of what you want - However, i'm reading that some say not to use a mortar that has any portland cement content at all and just to basically use a lime mortar.

Do any of you know what the best choice/solution is for this?

If the quickrete mortar mix is not the solution - where do I go about getting the recommended mortar.

Thank you very much.

Your mortar mix needs to be a bit softer that the masonry units it is between. So really it depends on the stone. For the stone we see here type n or even type s on some is perfectly fine. But on some stone it will need to be much weaker. Yes there are some who will say you need to only use true like mortar. But honestly I don't buy it. As long as the hardness is right i see nothing wrong with modern mortar.

 

[bholler]

Oh and don't use the pre mixed crap. Go buy sand and mortar mix add some acrylic additive and you will be much happier. It is cheaper and easier to work with

 

[mcdougy]

Nothing wrong with bagged stiff....its the exact same as what you could mix yourself. Making your own mortar is cheaper, but you won't orolly be going through it that fast, so bags would prolly be much more convenient.

 

[bholler]

I disagree. No matter what info with the bagged stuff it just doesn't work as nicely as stuff where I pick the texture of sand I want mix the ratios I want for the desired hardness and the amount of additive I want. I always feel like the sand is to coarse. And forget trying to pump it.

 

[bholler]

You also can't mess with color of the bagged stuff without using due

 

[shortys7777]

Post some pictures. The house I grew up in MA sounds similar. My dad had to repair some. He used some sort of paint after repairing it all. 20+ years and it still looks like it did when he finished. We use type S when doing outdoor jobs for landscaping.