Another day in Michigan A little tuckpointing

Had a little tuckpointing to do today.. It was nice to be on the ground and not have to set up scaffold on a chimney, We ground out the mortar joints about 3/4 of an inch. then We soft brushed out all of the dust, although it was warm out we had to toch the joints for quite a while until they were dry. most of the tuckpointing I do I use a grout bag instead of a hawk and tuckpointer. it goes more quickley and does just as nice of a job. The only problem with tuckpointing using a grout bad in the winter is how much it wears out your forearms. In the winter you want to use a thicker mortar. Useing a thicker mortar helps it to set more quickliy, the only down fall is how hard it is to squeeze out of the rout bag if you would like to learn more about tuckpointing head to http://michiganchimneyrepair.com/WintersandMichiganMasonry.aspx