Historic Materials

Older buildings, like older relatives, require specialized care along with much love. Buildings constructed of bricks and mortar are prime examples. Old brick is much softer than brick produced today. The type of mortar used in the 1800’s and early 1900’s is made of burned limestone and sand. It allows moisture to pass through, is higher in flexibility, and has a higher bond strength than today’s masonry cement. It is of great importance not to repair old brick structures with modern-type bricks and mortar made of ground limestone. Trapped moisture will cause old bricks to expand and sheer off in layers (which is referred to as “spalling”). In turn the modern mortar will crumble out. Vintage-type mortar expands and contracts with varying temperatures, maintaining its bond with the bricks. It is made with smaller particles, and so is more leak-resistant and self-healing after heavy rainfalls. So masonry restoration specialists, like Lupini are faithful in using historic materials.

Then to hide their restoration and make the building look like it has held up for 120 years as good as new, restorers are careful to obtain bricks and mortar that match the colors of the old materials. For that, they take samples during the proposal phase of the project and send them to suppliers to make sure that correct colors can be obtained in time for the work to be done. Today, unless the observer knows where on the tower work was done in 2020, it can’t be detected by color.