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https://www.askthetrades.co.uk/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.pl DIY Forum >> Building Questions >> A quick question about mortar https://www.askthetrades.co.uk/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.pl?num=1611338408 Message started by Natedog on Jan 22^nd, 2021, 6:00pm

Title: A quick question about mortar
Post by Natedog on Jan 22^nd, 2021, 6:00pm

I'm going to replace these few missing bricks so I can chuck a couple of little shelfs up here to make better use of the space.

[gallery]Natedog/1611338289.jpg[/gallery]

It might be a daft question, but if the rest of the wall is built with lime mortar, is there any issue with just using a sand/cement mix for just doing this one little repair? The bricks were removed when they were messing about with the roof back in the 90s. Its the dividing wall between us and next door, I'm guessing its 2 bricks thick, I can't see why they would have built it any thicker than that

Cheers

Title: Re: A quick question about mortar
Post by woodsmith on Jan 23^rd, 2021, 7:51am

If you use a cement mortar for this it’s likely to crack in the future, which is more unsightly than structurally problematic. Lime mortar breathes and allows some movement which cement mortar won’t. In this position it probably doesn’t matter and a 1:6 cement mortar would be fine. It is possible to buy bags of ready to mix lime mortar though (its a mix of lime and sharp sand or fine aggregate) and this would be better if you can find a local supplier.