Author

D.W. HOBBS British Cement Association
Abstract

The results of a test programme to investigate the durability performance of building mortars are described. The binders tested were Portland cement, Portland cement and lime, masonry cement which incorporates an air-entraining agent, sulfate resisting Portland cement, Portland pulverized fuel ash cement and Portland blastfurnace cement. All of the mortars were air-entrained and were subject to the dual action of sulfate attack and freeze/thaw attack using the BRE and BCA mortar tablet tests. All of the binders and mortars tested gave good durability performance similar to the BRE general purpose mix (GPM) (1:1:5.5) when using the BRE test procedure. Using the BCA test procedure, several of the mortars gave superior durability performance to the BRE GPM.