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Phil A · Oct 24, 2011

Just written a page on the history of lime mortar, anyone want to see it & tell me where i've gone wrong?

JWK · Oct 24, 2011

Go on then Ziggy, I'll have a look

daitheplant · Oct 24, 2011

Post it, Pete will find fault with it.:D:D:D

Phil A · Oct 24, 2011

daitheplant said: ↑
Post it, Pete will find fault with it.:D:D:D
Click to expand...

:D here goes....

Lime Mortar Historically
Lime mortar has been used for thousands of years. How it was discovered is lost in the mists of time, but I would imagine that someone had a fire on some limestone rock, which would have “burnt” the lime, driving the carbon dioxide off. Then it was quenched, either on purpose or by rain. Someone must have noticed that the burnt rock boiled the water very quickly and that the previously hard rock had turned into a useable putty. If they had kept this putty for any length of time they would have seen that it turned back into rock (as it absorbed carbon dioxide from the air)
In the Greek and Egyptian civilisations the earth, sand, clay and bitumen mortars that had been used for building were replaced by lime mortars.
The basic lime putty mortar was improved by the addition of a pozzolanic material in the form of volcanic ash, this changed it into an hydraulic lime mortar, with the ability to set underwater.
Some limestones contain impurities that, when burnt at low temperatures, produce a putty lime with a feeble hydraulic set.
The Romans discovered that ground pottery could be used instead of volcanic ash to make the mortar hydraulic, this gives the characteristic pink tinge seen in many Roman mortars.
Before the discovery of Hydraulic mortar, the size of constructions that relied on mortar for their stability was limited. If a wall was too wide, air could not get to the middle and without air the mortar would not set.
With Hydraulic Lime this was not a problem and it enabled the construction of buildings such as The Colosseum and the bridging of wide rivers by the use of shuttering and pouring the Hydraulic “Cementum” (a mix of hydraulic lime, sand and rocks). As the Roman Empire expanded, they looked for other materials that could be used locally to produce hydraulic mortar. They discovered a volcanic tuff called Trass from Northern Europe worked as well, as did ground pumice stone.
When the Romans left Britain, the use of hydraulic lime was forgotten. There were very few masonry buildings constructed in The Dark ages and even into the Great Cathedral building period in Medieval times, putty lime or feebly hydraulic mortars were being used. We had certainly forgotten the technology of adding pozzolans.
By the 18th century hydraulic lime technology was being re discovered. Limestones with differing proportions of impurities were being trialled to produce feeble, moderate and eminently hydraulic limes. These are known as Natural Hydraulic Limes or N.H.L. and are available nowdays in the form of dry powders with the grades 2, 3.5 and 5.
Trials were also carried out with various additives that could create a hydraulic set, such as clays, ground blast furnace slag and china clay by products such as metakaolin.
The advent of artificial cements put lime technology on the back burner again for many years. Although Cement and lime were used alongside each other for some time, the building industry switched almost exclusively to the use of Portland Cement in the mid 20th century.
But by the 1970’s it became apparent that Portland Cement had no place in the repair and conservation of historic structures. Its lack of breathability and flexibility caused accelerated decay to both brick and stone masonry. A cement render cannot flex with the natural movement of a building so often cracks allowing water penetration which then gets trapped in the building causing further problems.
In the case of Portland Cement being used as a pointing or bedding mortar, it does not let water escape through it, but forces the water to escape through the masonry, causing rapid decay from frost damage and salt crystalisation.
Today we have a full range of both putty and hydraulic limes available. Combined with a resurgence of lime technology and application skills. There is now no longer any excuse for using an inappropriate mortar for repairing historic structures.
Click to expand...

Any constructive criticism appreciated, also, i'm pants at spelling:DOH:

clueless1 · Oct 24, 2011

What can I say. You must have done well, because I read it all. I.e. I read a whole article about something I knew nothing about and had never really given any thought to.

Is that going on your website Zig? It should do. Apart from demonstrating that you know what you're on about, it also gives the search engines something to sink their teeth into so that you get indexed better.

Phil A · Oct 24, 2011

clueless1 said: ↑
What can I say. You must have done well, because I read it all. I.e. I read a whole article about something I knew nothing about and had never really given any thought to.

Is that going on your website Zig? It should do. Apart from demonstrating that you know what you're on about, it also gives the search engines something to sink their teeth into so that you get indexed better.
Click to expand...

Aww Cheers Dave

Glad you liked it.

Yes, that is the intended destination, trouble was it was hard to put it together without sounding like i'd cribbed it all off Wikipedia. difficult when we only have so much info to go on. Think I managed to get a few bits in that are not on the net. Just needed others views on it before I go live with it.

Was tempted to put in personal experience like finding lime mortar in Bristol that was laid in 1780 but was below the water table and was therefore still fresh, you could have still used it to re point, but I thought that might detract from the article.

JWK · Oct 24, 2011

That reads really well Ziggy, I can't comment on the technical bits as I know nothing about it, and I can't find any spelling mistakes either.

It's good to learn something new

Jack McHammocklashing · Oct 24, 2011

Obviously IF you are not in the business, like I would be totally ignorant of cause and effect

Awsome explanation and very interesting Ziggy

Regards Jack McH

Sheal · Oct 24, 2011

Great article Ziggy I've learnt quite a bit from you recently, it's like being back at school.

Sorry, just one little spelling mistake I found. From the bottom up, paragraph six......and are available nowdays (should read nowadays) in the form of dry powders.

Phil A · Oct 24, 2011

Cheers good people, i'm not very good at spelling so any help there is always appreciated

And the good eye of you folks cast across the paper before it goes live is always good

clueless1 · Oct 25, 2011

ziggy searchfield said: ↑
Was tempted to put in personal experience like finding lime mortar in Bristol that was laid in 1780 but was below the water table and was therefore still fresh, you could have still used it to re point, but I thought that might detract from the article.
Click to expand...

Put it in. Maybe in a separate but linked article.

Maybe have a link below your main article headed "Read about my experience". That could link to a page that would be kind of like a blog page, with headings and a couple of lines of text, and the headings are links to the full article.

So, having clicked the 'Read about my personal experience' link, you come to a page that looks something like this:

Ziggy finds lime mortar still fresh after more than 200 years
While working in Bristol I found lime mortar that was laid in 1780, but was below the water table and was therefore still fresh, you could have still used it to re point.....

Ziggy finds alien life in tea pot
While desperate for a cuppa one day on the building site, I found an old tea pot. I was going to brew up but saw something move in it.....

etc.

Then each of the headings is a link to the full article.

shiney · Oct 25, 2011

Excellent job Ziggy

Apart from the one spelling mistake pointed out by Sheal the only comment I have is about layout.

The one thing I had beaten into my head by my editor is to put a blank line between paragraphs. As your paras are fairly short it doesn't make a great deal of difference (but still wrong) but you should have a blank line between the heading and the article.

Editors are a pain in the proverbial. :D

Phil A · Oct 25, 2011

The original document has got loads of paragraphs, it just lost the gaps when I copied and pasted it. I'll put them back in

Did find some alien life in my tea cup, got back to site & my mate had used it to clear out a drain:DOH:

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