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Posted by beecrofter on April 21, 2007, 10:09 am
You will never get the strength and durability of a wet mix by dry
filling the joints.
If the stones are set on a slab and you clean out the joints of all
loose mortar and they are soundly set on the slab you can repoint with
mortar mix and compact the joints with a pointing trowell. There are
some acrylic additives that improve mortar, acryl 60 is one brand
name. You can also color the mortar or mix your own from sand lime
and portland cement.
Masking tape might just work, it's something I have never considered,
the mess can be limited by making the mortar as dry as is workable and
pressing it into place hard with the trowell. Scrub the goobers that
get on the stones by wiping with a piece of rolled up burlap in one
diretion only so you don't fill the pores of the stone.
Make sure you stop to get pet and kid footprints in a wide joint for
some later smiles.
>
> > I have a bluestone walkway and steps on the front of my house that has
> > over time lost some of its mortar joints and I would like to re-mortar
> > them. Are there any special tricks or tools to do this? I was going to
> > put masking tape along each side of the joint to make a clean job and
> > just use a small putty knife to put mortar in the joint, but I was
> > wondering if anyone else had some input. Thanks
>
> Ive put in a few pattios and walkways using dry mortar, unless you are
> in the desert dirt will have enough moisture to cure it. You can wet
> the area , wait till the tops of stones are dry, pour in dry mortar,
> sweep the stones clean and cover with plastic for a few days or incase
> it rains. Using wet mix is a always a mess
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