Pointing Stone

[Vallecorvo]

Hi I'm new to the forum & thought I'd see if anyone had any opinions on the following...I'm turning an old ground level store into an en-suite bedroom. The ceiling is an original arch shape & the walls are made of stone. I have just finished digging out all of the old pointing between the stones & I'm not certain of the best product to use to re-point. I think my two best options are as follows: (1) to use white cement & regular building sand. I know that the white cement has lime in it but is there enough to allow the walls to breathe properly. (2) The other option is a Weber product Weber Calce MP2,5 http://www.gasparellafranceschini.it/pdf/04/s-tecniche/WCalceMP.pdf. It's specifically well suited for use on stone but I often hear people don't rate pre-mixed products. I'm hoping with it being a Weber product, it'll be as good as buying the cement & sand separately. It's only around €7 a bag so even if I used 20 bags, it's not going to cost a packet more than buying separates. I'll have a consistently mixed product that will always be the same colour. Any thoughts would be much appreciated. Regards

 

[roy c]

I have done quite a bit of pointing stone work and I always use "sharp" sand and cement. The ratios I use are 5-6 s/sand and 1 cement and just add clean water and mix to a consistency of the mix just holding together in your hand when you squeeze the mix. Depending on the size of the joints of the stone work put the mix on a hawk and hold it close to the wall and using a small trowel or piece of wood to force the mix into the joints. Just pack it in and don't worry if it is level with the stone work let it firm up after a while, then you can either brush the mix out flush with the stonework. Or with a piece of wood sharpened to a "bluntish" point you can scrape away the mortar just in from the front of the stonework and then brush it with a "stiffish" brush to tidy it all up.. Have a look in my albums there is a couple of albums when I did my mates porch for him,,,

 

[Vallecorvo]

Roy, thanks for that, I had a quick look through your album, some nice pointing work. We would like it to be a more beige colour than standard grey cement colour, hence going for white cement or the Weber product. I keep reading that with stone, you should use lime based mortar to increase breathability. Not sure how important it is for a bit of internal pointing though. your method of applying the mortar makes sense, a friend told me just to 'throw' it at the joints then brush off the excess, I don't fancy this method, a small trowel & a piece of wood makes sense!. Thanks again