How is masonry pointing regulated?
The Historical Commission staff may approve all permit applications for new pointing. A masonry wall is like the body – bricks or stone units are bones and the mortar is the tendons. With changes in temperatures over the seasons, the wall expands and contracts. The mortar must be soft enough to absorb the changes; otherwise damage may occur to the bricks or stone. Mortar with too much Portland cement is too hard for historic masonry and may cause severe damage over time. To ensure that the correct amount of lime (which softens the mortar) is in the mix, the Historical Commission requires an owner or contractor to submit a mortar recipe for review (a typical recipe may be 2 – 2½ parts lime, 1 part cement, and 6 – 8 parts sand). After the contractor has put up a sample of the pointing, a member of the Commission’s staff will check it for softness. After that, the project can proceed. If you have a stuccoed house and the stucco was badly repaired when you bought it – the original stucco i
