Repointing 1875 field stone foundation

[hanson]

There are holes in the foundation to the outside through which I can put my fist, or my flat hand!

What proporation of portland cement, sand, and lime(?) should I use??? Or should I just buy some pre-mixed material from a big box store. Thanks for your thoughts, as I have not idea what to buy!

[roger61611]

(Retype) I used mortar on my river-rock porch, that was 10 years ago, I had no money and didn't know any better but it's fine still. Do more reading up on it.

[John Grabowski]

I saw on a home improvement show once that the correct way to determine your pointing mix is to have samples of the existing mortar taken from different sections of the masonry. Make sure that you label the samples and the locations from where they came from. You take the samples to a lab and they will tell you the correct proportions of mix to use for each location.

[DanG]

A fairly standard mortar mix would be

one part Portland / one part lime / 5 parts sand

or

one part masonry cement / 5 parts sand

masonry cement is a blend of Portland and lime.

(top posted for your convenience) ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Keep the whole world singing . . . . DanG (remove the sevens) [e-mail]

[Trekking Tom]

Many of these old masonry places never had any portland in them. Look at the materials available locally, it's probably what they used. The sand color also makes a difference if you want a perfect match.

Tom

[hanson]

Thanks for your advice everyone. That project is done. I used the mix that Dan suggested, since color did not matter. It came out great.

Thanks aga> There are holes in the foundation to the outside through which I can