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mortar for limestone blocks

Stone Conversations : Archive 7 : Message 00530

From: John Twilley <jtwilley@zzzzzzzzzzz>
Date: Fri, 10 Dec 2004 12:04:55 -0500
Subject: mortar for limestone blocks

MArcus,

Neither soaking wet nor a quick hose job. You don't want so much water
that its dripping off the stone and diluting the mortar but it takes
time for water to be drawn into the stone pores, so a quick splashing is
not going to achieve what you want either. It would be better to wet
the stones down several times over a period of hours or days before, and
give them time for any external water to drain off.

The point is to allow the stone to absorb as much water as it will draw
in by capillary attraction in advance of setting, so that it doesn't
"steal" the mix water from the mortar. The moisture in the stone pores
will then help compensate for moisture lost from the mortar as
evaporation happens. A little water sprinkled on the surface over the
days that follow will then be sufficient to keep things moving along.
If the stones draw too much moisture out of the mortar deep in the
joints at the beginning, you won't be able to compensate for that later
by putting water on the surface.

John

Marcus wrote:

Quoted text begins. And finally, how wet do stones need to be when working with lime
mortar? Soaking wet or a quick hose job? It seems like you'd end up with a
runny mess with very wet stone.
End of quote.


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