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Noticed some wild brick patterns at an old mill in Lowell
I was up in Lowell last weekend checking out the Boott Cotton Mills, and the brickwork on the old walls is something else. Some of those arches have these soldier courses that look like they were laid by hand a century ago, no chips or uneven joints anywhere. I spent like 20 minutes just staring at a corner where the bond pattern switches from Flemish to English halfway up, it was probably for a repair but they matched it perfectly. Has anyone else studied old mill brickwork and found tricks for replicating those tight joints on modern jobs?
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casey53513d ago
Figured I'd be bored by brick talk, but man, you got me. I always thought old masonry was just, you know, old, but seeing those tight joints in person changes the whole picture. There's this one spot in the pic where the color goes from dark red to almost pink, and they blended the mortar so smooth it looks like one pour. We tried copying that on a garage wall last fall, but our joints came out too wide and patchy. Guess a century of settling and the right sand mix does more than I gave it credit for. Now I'm double checking every bond pattern I see, even on the dumpy buildings downtown.
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