MOOSH---I really wish you guys would quit using these highly technical
terms!!  Ruth






At 6:14 PM -0500 1/31/02, Michael Edison wrote:
"Evidently you didn't have the pleasure of our company sometime back when one
of our esteemed unfortunate colleagues was working on a 1880's building with
sharp-edged molded-brick laid in butter joints, and had to figure out how to
repoint it after the mortar had turned to moosh and only remained in place
because the joints were so narrow."

It may be somewhat out of the mainstream, but I tend to think the moosh
phenomenon is actually one of the beneficial properties of lime. Dry it out
and it un-mooshes.

I asked a related question at the conference which had to do with the lime
cycle and the rate of conversion from hydrated lime to calcium carbonate as
a result of curing and carbonation. I kind of think that's why the joints
turn to moosh - incomplete conversion. The experts disagreed with each
other. I thought the English cement chemist had it right, claiming that
samples taken from 300 year old English castles showed very little
carbonation once you got past a thin surface layer of carbonated material.

Michael P. Edison
President
Edison Coatings, Inc.
3 Northwest Drive
Plainville, CT 06062
[log in to unmask]
Phone: (800) 697-8055 or (860) 747-2220
Fax: (800) 697-8044 or (860) 747-2280
Internet: www.edisoncoatings.com

--
Ruth Barton
[log in to unmask]
Westminster, VT

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