When restoring historic Masonry Nashville TN it is important to identify the composition of the original mortar used in the construction of the Masonry Nashville TN structure. While this may sound like a suggestion and an attempt to sell you on an idea, there are many reasons why you need to analyze the mortar and determine the composition of the original mortar used.

Older or historic Masonry Services in nashville  units were hand made and tend to be softer or more brittle than the hard fired clay bricks used in construction today, and stone will have different variant factors. Depending of the type of stone, it will have different crushing pressures, and will require a mortar that is softer than the rock. This is true of the hand made bricks also. Mortar must be softer than the Masonry Nashville TN unit being used to prevent damage to the bricks or stones. This part carries over into mortars today, but is often overlooked by the builders of today.

Each mortar type is based on a variant range of composition or compressive strength. An example of this is type n Masonry Nashville TN cement ( which is most often used today) has a compressive strength of 750 psi and is generally made using one part Portland cement mixed with one to one and one quarter parts lime and about two and a quarter to three parts sand by volume., and a lime mortar has a compressive strength of about 75 psi.

The various types of mortar are lime mortar, historic lime mortar (which contains historic lime), type k mortar, type o mortar, type n mortar, type s mortar, and type m mortar. And the crushing pressure of these types of mortar are 75 psi for lime mortars, 150 psi for type k, 350 psi for type o, 750 psi for type n, 1800 psi for type s, and 2800 psi for type m mortar.

As you can see, there is a huge difference between each mortar type and will certainly effect the results of any Masonry Nashville TN repair.

Historic mortars tend to range from lime mortar up to type o mortar in part due to the cost of Portland cement, but also to protect the Masonry Nashville TN
units. The lime used was often slacked on location and tended to have large pieces. This is known as historic lime. These large pieces are the difference between historic lime and the type S/SA lime used today which are screened to ensure smaller particles. The only real effect these pieces have in the mortar is visibility. They change the appearance of the mortar color and texture.