For your reading pleasure, an additional column has been added to Mortar Mouth.

ON CONCRETE AND GOLDENROD

The west wall of this 1860 stone house’s wing was pretty messed up with inappropriate repointing jobs through the years. The replacement mud was too hard and didn’t allow for wind-blown water evaporation through the joints. Behind the Portland cement-rich “fixes” were deep gaps where original mortar had been reduced to sand. 

There’s not much to be seen here in the way of repairs, but the stones are more clearly visible with slopped-on mortar mostly removed from their faces. More importantly, the gaping holes behind them have been tamp-pointed. 

The old stovepipe through the wall had to be cut out. Many stones were removed and many others took their places.

The south wall (where the ladder is set in the photograph below) was the worst of the work. This wall appeared as though it had collapsed once upon a time and been rebuilt by someone with no aesthetic sense, who was also intoxicated. 

The customer is changing the colors of the window trim and siding. I cut and caulked wood-expansion joints at the sides of the windows. The white caulking seen here will turn clear and disappear.