Lime mortar

[dmun]

Here's an interesting site about lime mortar:

Lime Works.US

And a fascinating page about historic masonry pointing, that may give builders good ideas about exterior finishes:

Recipes

which starts with a discussion of the "buttered joint" which was an important design feature of Victorian brickwork.

[Tscarborough]

Re: Lime mortar

Just a note on lime mortars in regards to this type of construction. Lime mortars/renders are not moisture barriers. This is their primary benefit in typical wall construction. For a thin shelled stucco application they may not be suitable other than as a finish coat for this reason.

I am a lime mortar/stucco advocate, but I would be wary of a applying lime stucco/render over anything but a cementious basecoat on an igloo type oven.

For mortar anywhere it is good.

[david s]

Re: Lime mortar

Lime in the stucco provides quite good flexibility, compared to cement only stucco. The manufacturers recommend that subsequent coats should contain more lime. So if you apply three thin coats of stucco then increase the lime quantity for each coat. A standard recipe would be 4:1:1 sand, lime, cement.

[Tscarborough]

Re: Lime mortar

I can tell you are in Australia because you list the ingredients upside down. 1 portland, 1/2 lime, 3-4 sand is perfect for a scratchcoat, then a brown coat of 1 portland, 1 lime, 3-4 sand, then a finish coat of 1/10 portland, 1 lime, and 2-3 sand.

[Alton]

Re: Lime mortar

Good link with great information. To say the fact I collected lot of information from it. Thanks for sharing with us.

[aaron.adley]

Re: Lime mortar

if you dont want to beat on it much , rent a 14 in. masonry saw and cut the joints out...muriatic acid which is used to clean masonry will only affect the surface and be a waste of time.