We have an old Cotswold stone fireplace that needs sprucing up. Cleaning the stones shouldn't be a problem, but the white mortar/grout is quite dirty and some of it is missing.
Bearing in mind the heat from the fire, what mortar/grout should I use?
white cement and or hydrated lime, and playpit washed sand. (silver sand?)
I've got that in mine., and the bricks have eroded faster under heat than the mortar. Hence using a cast iron fireback now. Mind you, those crack as well.
Notre that we are talking orange/yellow heat here. Seriously hot. The only degradation is immediately behind a very hot fire, hot enough to soften cast iron.
I THINK that the worst that can happen with portland cement is that the mortar will turn back to cement, but then any moisture in the air rehydrates it back to set cement..Not sure about hydrated lime and its chemistry. Probably similar.
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