I've a few dozen kilos of lime mortar left over in an oversized rubble bag on my garden at the moment and want to store it over winter in the garage. I can't move the bag, so I'd like to decant it into sealable plastic tubs like this one: http://www.selections.com/GF1760/wild-bird-feed-storage-tub-large/?internalsource=product_pred - but I don't want to spend a couple of hundred quid on these things. £8 for a plastic tub! Does anyone have any tips?
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Storage of leftover lime mortar
- Thread starter jaykayem
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biffvernon
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I don't see where the 'couple of hundred quid' comes in. It's just £7.99 and looks ideal. You might get such tubs for free from someone who has just been using lime putty. I store mine in an old plastic dustbin and any other old watertight container. Just drop it in an add and inch or two of water over the top and it will keep for ever.
Didn't realise I'd be shot down for a bit of economic hyperbole! My point was that I wanted to buy 15 or 16 of these things, so that would have been getting on for £130. I was under the illusion that the container had to be airtight - if not, I'll get a couple of 210L bins off ebay (I don't know anyone who has just been using lime putty), and bang in a bit of water.
It doesn't have to be air tight but the water layer on top must not evaporate off and the mortar allowed to dry out. An old dustbin would be fine or anything similar. Myself, I've got a collection of 10L / 15L / 20L tubs from various sources which I use.
I seem to remember someone here left a bucket of mortar outside for a year or so. It was fine as the rain kept a layer of water on the top.
I seem to remember someone here left a bucket of mortar outside for a year or so. It was fine as the rain kept a layer of water on the top.
biffvernon
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I've certainly got a couple of binfulls outside, under the eave of a gutterless shed roof to ensure there's a steady top up of rainwater (plus a few autumn leaves). Been there a couple of years.
Schoolmarm
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I thought a few dozen meant 36 kilos. So a black bin will easily hold that.
No, 'a few' is not number-specific. I have a lot of mortar at the moment, and am getting through it, but need to get it stored away sharpish as it's in the way. The post was a query about storage of lime mortar, not an invitation to quibble over my vague numbers! Thanks for the comments, now I know where I should stick the mortar.
Schoolmarm
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jaykayem said:No, 'a few' is not number-specific. I have a lot of mortar at the moment, and am getting through it, but need to get it stored away sharpish as it's in the way. The post was a query about storage of lime mortar, not an invitation to quibble over my vague numbers! Thanks for the comments, now I know where I should stick the mortar.
Stop being soft. It is easier to offer advice on storage if amounts are factored in.
still_adrianth
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With a close-fitting (but not airtight) lid I stored lime mortar all last winter and spring without a water layer. The moisture was just what you get after mixing putty with sand. It was a Curver box sold at B&Q under their own brand, big enough to mix a 3:1 mix with a 25kg bag of sand in the crate with a hoe (hard work!). It's an unusually tough crate, and costs quite a bit. But all I did was cover over the mortar with the empty sand bag weighted down with stones, and put the lid on. The mortar was fine, and not soggy when I wanted it. It must even have frozen during winter.
By the way, can I warn fellow novices? I've been repointing our brick garden wall (hardly any mortar left at all) slowly but enjoyably. I read about the importance of beating the 'green' mortar with a stiff brush. But I was pointing in the evenings till dark, so often coming back to it the next day when it was too hard, and had to beat it like crazy. Eventually I concluded that I was being so meticulous that there weren't any cracks to be beaten out, and that if it was too hard then gentle rubbing with a brass wire brush (Halfords) took the too-hard top off and revealed the aggregate nicely. The reason for this waffle is that I got something like tennis elbow after the crazy brush beating and haven't been able to do any serious DIY for months: torment! NB any other fools.
Back to the water layer: isn't the mortar supposed to be fairly dry when used, to reduce shrinkage cracks? What do you do if it has water over it and you want to use it right away?
By the way, can I warn fellow novices? I've been repointing our brick garden wall (hardly any mortar left at all) slowly but enjoyably. I read about the importance of beating the 'green' mortar with a stiff brush. But I was pointing in the evenings till dark, so often coming back to it the next day when it was too hard, and had to beat it like crazy. Eventually I concluded that I was being so meticulous that there weren't any cracks to be beaten out, and that if it was too hard then gentle rubbing with a brass wire brush (Halfords) took the too-hard top off and revealed the aggregate nicely. The reason for this waffle is that I got something like tennis elbow after the crazy brush beating and haven't been able to do any serious DIY for months: torment! NB any other fools.
Back to the water layer: isn't the mortar supposed to be fairly dry when used, to reduce shrinkage cracks? What do you do if it has water over it and you want to use it right away?
biffvernon
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If you don't store the mortar with a layer of water over it the carbon dioxide in the air (390ppmv and rising!) will react with the lime. Of course it's a slow process and in a tub this will only effect the top and you may notice a hardish crust on the surface - that's the carbonated layer. Much better to keep it under water.
There's no problem with the mortar getting too wet. Lime mortar is realy good at settling down and leaving all teh spare water on top and this can be just gently poured off. Keep this water in a bucket and use it to cover the mortar again next time you stop for lunch. This water will already be a saturated solution of 'lime water' and not have any excess CO2 that could carbonate your mortar.
Funnily enough, if you are using a clay mortar rather than lime, the stuff stays in suspension much longer, happy to stay as a too sloppy slurry. Floculation comes to mind.
There's no problem with the mortar getting too wet. Lime mortar is realy good at settling down and leaving all teh spare water on top and this can be just gently poured off. Keep this water in a bucket and use it to cover the mortar again next time you stop for lunch. This water will already be a saturated solution of 'lime water' and not have any excess CO2 that could carbonate your mortar.
Funnily enough, if you are using a clay mortar rather than lime, the stuff stays in suspension much longer, happy to stay as a too sloppy slurry. Floculation comes to mind.
Flyfisher
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Perhaps it makes no real difference (apart from the volume to be stored) but is it better to store just lime putty or the fully made-up mortar (both under water of course)?
Schoolmarm
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still_adrianth said:But I was pointing in the evenings till dark, so often coming back to it the next day when it was too hard,
How are you getting it to go off that quick?
still_adrianth
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Schoolmarm said:How are you getting it to go off that quick?
Well, the wall's in a sunny spot and the weather was nice. While not questioning Biff (thanks for the tips), maybe my mortar was nevertheless drier than if it had recently been underwater. When it was really warm, it was going green hard in only about 4 hours. And these were deep joints too, sprayed with water before mortaring. I did lots of spraying for a couple of weeks afterwards to stop it drying too quickly. A couple of months later, it's looking good - only another 90 years or so until it's proven as good as the old stuff.
Fresh out of the crate the mortar would be too crumbly to be workable, but after knocking it up for a minute it was lovely plastic stuff. How does that compare with the recently-underwater sort?
I know it's surprising, but closely covering the mortar in the bottom of the crate with the empty sand bag weighted down with stones stopped a carbonated crust forming even after months of storage. It did form in a corner where the bag was sticking up slightly, which is why I'm guessing that the bag did the trick. As I said, the crate itself had a pretty good lid, but not airtight, and it was kept in permanent shade under a tree.
I'm not trying to say this way is better - I did it in ignorance and it seemed to work!
biffvernon
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Oh right, that would work. The plastic bag does the same as a layer of water - stops the air reaching the lime.still_adrianth said:Schoolmarm said:but closely covering the mortar in the bottom of the crate with the empty sand bag weighted down with stones stopped a carbonated crust forming even after months of storage.