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Talked to a mason at the supply yard who said he never uses a level on old foundations, now I'm rethinking my whole approach to historic house repointing.
He said the walls settled a hundred years ago and chasing level just creates weird looking joints, so I'm gonna try matching the original slump on my next job in the South End, has anyone else just let the wall tell you what it wants?
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elizabetha9215h ago
That thing about "chasing level just creates weird looking joints" really stuck with me... I used to be all about making sure everything was perfectly plumb and level on old brickwork, but after seeing some real old repointing jobs up close, the original slump has a character to it that you just can't fake with a level. It makes total sense that the wall settled and trying to force it into modern standards would look wrong. Now I'm wondering how many times I've made a historic wall look worse by being too precise... think I'm gonna try your approach of letting the wall guide me on my next project.
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torres.leo14h agoMost Upvoted
Did you notice how the old lime mortar kinda absorbs the rain differently too?
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