I have to do some repointing on an old stone farmhouse in Normandy.
I've put a couple of pictures at
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cement used here is white cement with some gritty sand and some ordinary sand. What kind of proportion cement/sand/grit sand/ should I use for the correct hardness of the mortar and to get the sandy yellow colour shown?
I've looked at all the info I can get about proportion/ hardness of mortar but it's mainly confused me so far!
Anyone who could look at the pictures and unconfuse me a bit would be most welcome.
There should be no cement in the mix at all. The mortar used is lime mortar and the sandy yellow colour comes from the sand used. If you buy your materials in France you will find that hydraulic lime mortar is available pre-mixed in a variety of colors. If you can pick out a samples of mortar you can match it at the suppliers.
I haven't used any builder's suppliers in France myself, but have used BigMat in Belgium and Italy. They stock just about everything you will need. A friend who has done up some houses in Normandy (tried to sell me one) informed me about the use of lime mortar and TBH it's fairly common in the UK as well. IIRC the pre-mixed mortar comes from Aquitaine so should be easily available - sadly I threw out the empty bags recently.
Do't worry about the hardness. Go around to the local quarries and see if you can spot where they got their sand from. Look at the builders merchants -not thew French equivalent of B&Q though. Real builders merchants or find out where the local bricklayers eat/drink and ask one of them for advice.
The mix you want is 1 shovel of lime to 1 of cement with about 6 or seven shovels of sand. If you can't find the sand locally almost any yellow sand will do. You don't appear to need mor than 6 or 7 shovels of it -that's about 2 bucketfulls.
Slap it on with a gauge - a round ended trowel, straight from the bucket off a ladder will do. Let it dry for about 2 to 3 hours then wire brush it back to what you want. Once you get the hang of it it is quite a pleasant job.
Don't use soap on your hands if you use lime as it reacts to leave a layer of caustic from the saop on your hands that will not go away until all the lime has gone. It will crack your skin badly if you use it long and often. Just wash with water and lightly oil with that muck they put all over their food over there to help the garlic and snails slide down.
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