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I have an old cottage with some exposed stone walls. Very pretty, VERY dusty. Overtime there is always dust that comes away from the lime mortar/pointing.

A lot of people will re-point with cement, but I would really like to avoid this as obviously it locks in the moisture.

What can I do to reduce this?

Rohit Gupta
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Keeno
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1 Answers1

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Here's two different ways to tackle this issue. You could remove the soft and crumbly mortar and replace it with a suitable lime/sand mortar comprising of a lime putty or a weak NHL bagged lime and washed/sharp/grit sand in a 1:3 ratio of lime to sand. Raking out the old mortar to around 10mm or so should suffice indoors.

Or, you can try to seal the loose particles in the existing mortar using a suitable binder. There are various products available and you'd be best searching locally to you for a primer/binder/sealer which has breathable qualities.

handyman
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