Pneumatic Mortar

[uvmce]

I am performing a study on a building built in 1960 and the drawings call out walls that are constructed of 4" pneumatic mortar. Visually it looks like plain old concrete but don't know anything else about the material.

 

[concretemasonry]

What do the plans require as a standard for the "mortar" specified? There should have been a specification and an appropriate material standard.

Mortar is normally used for masonry to join masonry units together or keep them apart.

Frequently, people erroneously use the term "mortar" for anything that contains cement and/or lime and water. They also confuse it with the "paste" the bonds the aggregate into a concrete mix or they confuse mortar with grout.

What type of structure and where is it located? How are the walls used (partition, loadbearing, infill, etc.)?

Dick

 

[concretemasonry]

Could the non-bearing walls be built using a pressure applied concrete mix that is known by many names such as shotcrete, gunite, etc.? This is applied over a surface and surrounds a lightly reinforced steel grid.

Dick

 

[uvmce]

The walls are used to enclose both an exhaust air and supply air duct for a roadway tunnel. The structure is located in Massachusetts. The drawings do not have nay specifications on them and no book spec is available. I have attached a pdf of one of the drawings.

 

[Ron]

Pneumatic mortar can mean anything...most likely pumped grout.

 

[cvg]

around here, pneumatic mortar = shotcrete" and 4" is a typical thickness