Adobe brick repair keeps getting botched around here
I keep seeing folks seal old adobe with Portland cement and then wonder why the walls crack within a season. It needs lime mortar and time to breathe, I learned that fixing a 1930s place near Nob Hill last spring. Anyone else notice this trend or am I just too picky about mud work?
I watched a whole video about this from a guy who restores old southwest buildings and he said the same thing. Cement traps water inside the wall and the adobe just falls apart behind it, which is the exact opposite of what people think they're fixing. He said lime mortar is softer than the bricks on purpose so the wall can move and dry out on its own. Old buildings were built to shed water slowly and cement slams that door shut. Makes you wonder how many decent walls got ruined by somebody trying to help.