Lime mortar vs Portland mix, picked lime for a 1908 row house in Baltimore

Had to repoint about 40 feet of brick on my own place. Talked to three suppliers and they all pushed type N Portland. But the original brick is soft as cheese. Went with hydrated lime and sand instead, 1:3. It took a week longer because the lime cures slow. That said, the wall looks right and nothing cracked over winter. Anyone here dealt with old soft brick and Portland failures?

2 comments

2 Comments

brown.gavin7d ago

Funny how modern shortcuts never beat what already worked.

cooper.phoenix7d ago

Point out that "what already worked" usually only worked because people had no other choice back then. Nobody sticks with a slow method when a faster one comes along that does the same job, they just romanticize the old way once it's gone. The real test is whether those old methods still hold up when you put them side by side with the new stuff today, not in memory. Most of the time, the shortcut only looks weak because it fixes the annoying parts people forgot the old way had. If the old way was truly better at the core job, people would still be using it out of pure stubbornness. Are you actually using that old method right now, or just talking about it?