Can I reuse old lime mortar?

[stormdog]

Good evening all,

New member here!!!

I'm in the process of demolishing and rebuilding parts of my 'outhouse', I'm in North Devon, and I'd say it's made from local stone (it matches the cottages around me and my cottage!) with a gritty white lime mortar.

The front of the building is staying pretty much the same but the internal walls need to come down. I have a huge beautifull pile of re-useable stone and a pile of lovely white lime mortar in child-sized fist chunks.

I need to patch/rebuild parts of the front ......Can I reuse the old mortar in anyway???!!! HEEELPPP!!! any advice at all would be fabulous.

 

[FamilyWiggs]

Stormdog - welcome to the forum.

You can reuse lime mortar, but there is quite an effort in breaking it down. It can be reused as the aggregate in your new mortar, but you will need to add new lime to the mix other wise you'll only have a bucket of wet sandy aggregate. Alternatively you could break it down and sieve out the small stones for reuse.

Some pics would be lovely!

Robin

 

[Gervase]

If you've got access to a roller pan mixer or a forced action mixer rather than just a drum mixer then it's a good idea to re-use old mortar and plaster - I do it all the time. If you have to break it down by hand, however, it could be a bit of a pain.

 

[stormdog]

Thank you so much, you know your stuff!

Couldn't hire one locally which is a huge pity, hardcore is criminally expensive to get rid of too! I'm not sure I could've managed by hand, him indoors left me outside for the past two weeks(!) breaking/smashing/hefting etc!!!!! I'm a lady y'know!!! (now with fabulous arms and tum!!) I'd love to do this all the time!!! but don't tell!
SIX AND A HALF tons later....
...about to embark on the next bit! another question too, I'll post it with a new 'post' and if you can help again i'd be really grateful!

In the words of someone famous...

i'll be back!!!

(Pics to follow!)