Dear PoP – Exposing a Brick Wall, Finding Matching Mortar?

Photo by PoPville flickr user AWard Tour

“Dear PoP,

I am exposing a brick wall in my house. It was never covered in plaster (it was an old attic space that had wood paneling over it and then dry wall over that) so its not going to be a huge pain to clean it off. But, the biggest problem I’m facing is that the mortar is old and there are some small gaps here and there. The mortar is a very light sand color and the texture is a bit chunkier than today’s mortar. I’ve been reading on the internet that the best bet is to talk to people who have done this before, masons, other homeowners, to see how they matched mortar for similar houses from the same year. According to my internet research, even in big cities, different builders usually used very similar mortar from house to house with sand from the same place and with similar mixes and technique. It is a bayfront townhouse built in 1904, so if anyone has any experience with matching mortar, or knows where I could get more resources, I could really use the help! Thanks.”