A chat with my neighbor about adobe brick repair made me rethink my whole approach

I was out front last Saturday patching a crack in my 1950s adobe wall on Mountain Rd, and my neighbor Rosa came over. She's lived here for 40 years and said I was using the wrong mud mix, too much cement. She told me the old timers use mostly sand and clay with just a pinch of cement, and they let it cure slow under wet burlap for a week. I always thought modern mixes were better, but her walls have zero cracks after all those monsoons. Now I'm wondering if I've been over-engineering every repair on my 3-bedroom place. Has anyone else switched to traditional methods and seen better results long term?

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elliot5429d ago

You ever notice how the old-timers always make everything sound simpler than it actually is? My uncle tried doing a lime plaster repair on his place last year, said it was just sand and water, but he ended up redoing it three times because he didn't wait long enough between coats. Slow cure under burlap sounds like a pain, but I bet it beats patching the same crack every spring.