Tuck-pointing is scraping out the old mortar from between the stones, and replacing it with new mortar using a pointing tool.
Honestly, I pictured a very Zen and relaxing time of stuffing mortar into cracks while considering life, and what it meant to fix foundations and what that might mean for my own existence.
The process, however, was not very Zen at all. Let me list why:
* Mortar mix is sold by the 80 lb bag. Until purchasing it, I thought that meant 80 lbs once you add the water. No - they are 80 lb bags of basically sand. And HEAVY.
* Mixing mortar is a very unforgiving process. Cement is a fairly easy mix - back and forth with the hoe as you mix in the cement and rocks and such. Mortar is a very fine powder that really doesn't like to mix without a LOT of effort.
* Concrete and mortar are very reactive to the human skin. And the rubber gauntlets I started out with are starting to stink.
* Foundations are on the ground. Which makes logical sense, but you don't think about all the positions you have to contort yourself into in order to shove this play-doh like substance into cracks. And stay there.
So it's a long process. Here's what the wall looked like before I started:
The section to the right required the tuck-pointing tool to get the mortar in between the bricks:
However, once it changed from brick to fieldstone, I discovered the tuck-pointing tool was useless for getting mortar in the cracks, and it had to be squished in by hand.
And this is how it looks once dry:
I have been doing this around the entire house this summer.
So what have I learned about foundation building? In my not-so-Zen meditations while getting this done?
Foundation building is hard. It hurts. It is uncomfortable. And there are NO shortcuts. Slog, patch, slog, and patch some more.
There are worse lessons to take away. More philosophy later.
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