I have an old house and am repointing some bricks. I would like to know what
the mixture ratio is for cement and sand. I have heard anywhere from half
and half to 3 times sand. I have to have an almost white color so I can't
use the premixed motar. What I have been mixing ( half and half) seems to
fall away when it dries. Thanks for any help.

W. Wells wrote:
I have an old house and am repointing some bricks. I would like to know what
the mixture ratio is for cement and sand. I have heard anywhere from half
and half to 3 times sand. I have to have an almost white color so I can't
use the premixed motar. What I have been mixing ( half and half) seems to
fall away when it dries. Thanks for any help.



Use white cement if needed. (5) sand - (1) cement - (1) hydrated lime.

In article , "W. Wells" wrote:
I have an old house and am repointing some bricks. I would like to know what
the mixture ratio is for cement and sand. I have heard anywhere from half
and half to 3 times sand. I have to have an almost white color so I can't
use the premixed motar. What I have been mixing ( half and half) seems to
fall away when it dries. Thanks for any help.

If it crumbles when it dries, either your cement is too old, or you didn't use
enough water. Also, you should wet down the existing mortar and bricks before
applying the new mortar. Otherwise, the existing masonry will suck water out
of your new mortar and weaken it.

G Henslee's recommended mix is good advice. You really need some lime in there
to increase the workability of the mix; it makes the mortar stickier, too.

--
Regards,
Doug Miller (alphageek at milmac dot com)

Nobody ever left footprints in the sands of time by sitting on his butt.
And who wants to leave buttprints in the sands of time?

W. Wells wrote:
I have an old house and am repointing some bricks. I would like to
know what the mixture ratio is for cement and sand. I have heard
anywhere from half and half to 3 times sand. I have to have an almost
white color so I can't use the premixed motar. What I have been
mixing ( half and half) seems to fall away when it dries. Thanks for
any help.

How old is that home? Using modern mortar on old brick can cause
damage. You may need a special mix to prevent damage.

--
Joseph Meehan

Dia duit

In article , "Joseph Meehan" wrote:
W. Wells wrote:
I have an old house and am repointing some bricks. I would like to
know what the mixture ratio is for cement and sand. I have heard
anywhere from half and half to 3 times sand. I have to have an almost
white color so I can't use the premixed motar. What I have been
mixing ( half and half) seems to fall away when it dries. Thanks for
any help.

How old is that home? Using modern mortar on old brick can cause
damage. You may need a special mix to prevent damage.

Hmmm.... never heard that before. Can you be more specific?

--
Regards,
Doug Miller (alphageek at milmac dot com)

Nobody ever left footprints in the sands of time by sitting on his butt.
And who wants to leave buttprints in the sands of time?

Doug Miller wrote:
In article , "Joseph Meehan" wrote:
W. Wells wrote:
I have an old house and am repointing some bricks. I would like to
know what the mixture ratio is for cement and sand. I have heard
anywhere from half and half to 3 times sand. I have to have an almost
white color so I can't use the premixed motar. What I have been
mixing ( half and half) seems to fall away when it dries. Thanks for
any help.

How old is that home? Using modern mortar on old brick can cause
damage. You may need a special mix to prevent damage.

Hmmm.... never heard that before. Can you be more specific?

It's important that the mortar not be as hard as the bricks. Old bricks
were not as hard as todays bricks, but the old mortar had much more lime
than todays mortar. If you try to use a new -0high cement mix mortar with
the old softer bricks, the faces of the bricks will start to spall off.


John
--
Remove the dead poet to e-mail, tho CC'd posts are unwelcome.
Mean People Suck - It takes two deviations to get cool.
Ask me about joining the NRA.

In article , wrote:
Doug Miller wrote:
In article , "Joseph Meehan"
wrote:
W. Wells wrote:
I have an old house and am repointing some bricks. I would like to
know what the mixture ratio is for cement and sand. I have heard
anywhere from half and half to 3 times sand. I have to have an almost
white color so I can't use the premixed motar. What I have been
mixing ( half and half) seems to fall away when it dries. Thanks for
any help.

How old is that home? Using modern mortar on old brick can cause
damage. You may need a special mix to prevent damage.

Hmmm.... never heard that before. Can you be more specific?

It's important that the mortar not be as hard as the bricks. Old bricks
were not as hard as todays bricks, but the old mortar had much more lime
than todays mortar. If you try to use a new -0high cement mix mortar with
the old softer bricks, the faces of the bricks will start to spall off.

Thanks, John - do you have any idea why that is?

--
Regards,
Doug Miller (alphageek at milmac dot com)

Nobody ever left footprints in the sands of time by sitting on his butt.
And who wants to leave buttprints in the sands of time?

Doug Miller wrote:
In article , wrote:
Doug Miller wrote:
In article , "Joseph Meehan"
wrote:
W. Wells wrote:
I have an old house and am repointing some bricks. I would like to
know what the mixture ratio is for cement and sand. I have heard
anywhere from half and half to 3 times sand. I have to have an almost
white color so I can't use the premixed motar. What I have been
mixing ( half and half) seems to fall away when it dries. Thanks for
any help.

How old is that home? Using modern mortar on old brick can cause
damage. You may need a special mix to prevent damage.

Hmmm.... never heard that before. Can you be more specific?

It's important that the mortar not be as hard as the bricks. Old bricks
were not as hard as todays bricks, but the old mortar had much more lime
than todays mortar. If you try to use a new -0high cement mix mortar with
the old softer bricks, the faces of the bricks will start to spall off.

Thanks, John - do you have any idea why that is?

Not a friggin clue, but to make a wild assed guess, I'd say that materials
all move, even something as rigid seeming as a brick wall, and when things
move there's got to be some give: you engineer that give into the mortar
while it's the bricks that give the strength to the wall. If the mortar
is stronger than the bricks, then you're trying to make a concrete wall
with very large aggregate.



John
--
Remove the dead poet to e-mail, tho CC'd posts are unwelcome.
Mean People Suck - It takes two deviations to get cool.
Ask me about joining the NRA.

firstly, old mortar was almost always made with slaked lime and not cement.
if you are trying to point brick, the marshaltown.com (the trowel company)
has an excellent tutorial.
i have pointed thousands of chimneys and walls and have yet to see new
mortar as the cause of brick deterioration, water infiltration causes
spauled brick and can enter brick directly or via wicking from foundations
or roofs.
i will share the secret to pointing learned from an irish immigrant
bricklayer...use a pointing bag and a mix of three parts course silica sand
to one part masonry cement (plastisizers added to portland) never wet brick
prior to pointing or you'll have a mucky mess and ruined wall...tool the
mortar joint and then lightly mist the entire surface pointing with water to
allow a slow cure of the joint. the longer the cure (the misting) the
stronger the mortar joint/bond. the powdering of mortar joints is caused by
rapid drying and lack of hydration.
it is difficult to not have the mortar turn white as it is bleached by the
sun. white portland tends to be a stark or striking white which will not
likely match your existing mortar.
wrote in message
...
Doug Miller wrote:
In article ,
wrote:
Doug Miller wrote:
In article , "Joseph
Meehan"
wrote:
W. Wells wrote:
I have an old house and am repointing some bricks. I would like to
know what the mixture ratio is for cement and sand. I have heard
anywhere from half and half to 3 times sand. I have to have an
almost
white color so I can't use the premixed motar. What I have been
mixing ( half and half) seems to fall away when it dries. Thanks
for
any help.

How old is that home? Using modern mortar on old brick can
cause
damage. You may need a special mix to prevent damage.

Hmmm.... never heard that before. Can you be more specific?

It's important that the mortar not be as hard as the bricks. Old
bricks
were not as hard as todays bricks, but the old mortar had much more
lime
than todays mortar. If you try to use a new -0high cement mix mortar
with
the old softer bricks, the faces of the bricks will start to spall off.

Thanks, John - do you have any idea why that is?

Not a friggin clue, but to make a wild assed guess, I'd say that materials
all move, even something as rigid seeming as a brick wall, and when things
move there's got to be some give: you engineer that give into the mortar
while it's the bricks that give the strength to the wall. If the mortar
is stronger than the bricks, then you're trying to make a concrete wall
with very large aggregate.



John
--
Remove the dead poet to e-mail, tho CC'd posts are unwelcome.
Mean People Suck - It takes two deviations to get cool.
Ask me about joining the NRA.