I'm in the exact same position as this recent. anybody have any thoughts on this interior pointing with portland cement??
Hi, looking for a little advice. I have an apartment in a turn-of-the-century (1900) building in the East Village. I’m afraid that I may have made a mistake in having an exposed (interior) brick wall in my apartment repointed. The fellow who did the work used portland cement-based mortar. I’m starting to do some reading…
Hi, looking for a little advice. I have an apartment in a turn-of-the-century (1900) building in the East Village. I’m afraid that I may have made a mistake in having an exposed (interior) brick wall in my apartment repointed. The fellow who did the work used portland cement-based mortar.
I’m starting to do some reading now and am getting the impression that this hard cement is not recommended for older brick. It seems it can damage the brick and that lime-based mortar is preferred.
Am I in trouble here or is this really a different story considering it is an interior wall? What do i do here considering that the work is now done? I’ve gotten a mix of opinions on this. Interested to hear your thoughts…
bw
cement based mortar has been used extensively for repointing and in most cases it will not have an effect, but if you start to see any hairline fractures in the bricks over the next few years you might consider repointing.
The idea is not to make the mortar stronger than the brick it’s meant to hold together. Did he remove mortar before pointing or just connect it to the suface? Most likely it’s not going to make a difference and the brick will not pull apart because you don’t have the freeze/thaw cycle on the inside. But only time will tell.