In a message dated 10/12/2001 4:46:44 PM Eastern Daylight Time, [log in to unmask]
writes:

> I saw a few years back an interesting problem on a rubble wall that was
being
>  repointed, by another contractor, where all the mortar between the stones
> was
>  cut out. It looked pretty much to me that if the stones were not repointed
>  real quick that the veneer portion of the wall would fall apart.

I am working on a rehab of a dam with a rubble masonry downstream face
damaged in Hurricane Floyd. According to inspection reports, there has not
been mortar noted in the joints for over 20 years; it was decribed as
"ungouted." I suggested that it might have been dry laid in the first place,
but one of the engineers insists that it must have had mortar, which has
spalled off because of water penetraton. So we are in the process of deciding
mortar color, consistency, joint profile etc. But...... could a downstream
masonry face of a dam have been laid up without mortar?

Mary

PS ....  and stay intact for 100+ years ... with water and cute little
animals and fishies running over it? (It has a beaver dam in progress on the
spillway -- they're obviously getting impatient with the low level of the
pond!)