Just saw some wild pointing work on a church in Savannah

I was down in Savannah last weekend visiting family and walked past this old brick church on Bull Street. The repointing was awful, they used grey mortar on red clay bricks and it was cracking already. Has anyone else run into bad mortar matching on historic buildings?

2 comments

2 Comments

elizabeth43825d agoMost Upvoted

Did you try using a lime-based mortar instead of the standard stuff? That's what worked for me on a old stone wall I fixed up last summer. The color matched way better and it didn't crack because it lets the bricks breathe.

lily36025d agoTop Commenter

That old house I grew up in had a similar issue with the mortar they used in the 70s, @elizabeth438, and it just crumbled after a few winters. It's kind of like how we patch things up quick with the wrong glue instead of taking the time to get the right fix. Lime mortar is one of those old tricks that actually works because it lets moisture evaporate, just like how you need to let a cut breathe instead of smothering it with a bandage. People forget that sometimes the old ways are better because they had to last without all our modern plastics and chemicals.