That job in Savannah made me give up my old mortar mix for good

I was on a repair job down near Forsyth Park last March, patching a retaining wall that kept cracking. The homeowner's dad was a mason back in the 60s and he told me to stop using the pre-mixed stuff and just do a 3:1 with lime. I thought he was old school for the sake of it, but he showed me how the original mortar was soft and let the bricks breathe. I re-did a small section his way and the difference in how it grabs and flexes was wild. Has anyone else switched to a lime mix after fighting hairline cracks for years?

2 comments

2 Comments

ross.kim3d ago

I read a piece in an old masonry handbook from the 70s that talked about lime putting lime putty in brick joints and it stuck with me. The guy who wrote it said modern mixes are too hard for historic brick, and that soft mortar acts like a fuse, it takes the stress so the brick doesnt have to. Your Savannah story matches what I've heard from a few old timers, they swear by it for any wall that moves at all.

lucashenderson2d ago

But has anyone actually thought about what happens to that soft mortar in the walls that don't move? Because I keep hearing the flex argument, and it makes sense for old buildings. But if the lime is too soft and the wall is stable, it just crumbles out over time and you end up repointing way more often than you should. My buddy does restoration work up in Charleston and he's seen lime mortar wash out in like 15 years on a house that sits in the wind. The old timers weren't wrong about the brick saving part, but they also didn't have to deal with modern weather exposure or salt air the way we do now. Seems like there's a middle ground where you match the mortar to the brick, not just the era.