[fitzg2md]

I am redoing a stone walkway for a client. The previous contractor (who is nowhere to be found now...go figure) built a mortar-joint irregular stone walkway using tumbled bluestone. Not the best material for this project IMO. He dry laid it (sorta) but only used 2 inches of sand as a base! So, needless to say this thing looks like a mess 5 years later. Customer wanted to reuse the same stone, but I talked them into not doing that. May go with new stone or pavers...

Now, this got me thinking. Is it really even realistically possible to reuse this stone? Just out of curiousity, what would be involved in removing the mortar off the rock? just a small chipping hammer and alot of elbow grease? Some type of acid wash? How time intesive do you think doing 500 sqft worth of stone would be?

Just curious...not for this project. Gonna maybe do something very informal with the used stone. Some type of loose farm wall or something. Or not...

[Squizzy Taylor]

We get clients want us to re-use old mortared stone a lot. I tell them that in most cases it is uneconomical....because thats the truth. The time taken to chip scrape and otherwise make presentable (at least to our standards) is counter productive in all but a few cases. Sometimes the mortar will come away real easy and this may be easier than getting new stone into a difficult access job....but thats rare. I've done it and it looks like crap.

To get an acid (Hcl) of suitable strength to eat the mortar you will start chewing into the stone and affecting the appearance. Possible, but time consuming, messy and hazardous.

Sometimes we will re-use some stone behind a wall where it wont be seen.

[Raj Venugopal]

Do what an electrician would do on a rewiring (reno) job.

Tell 'em you have to charge by the running hour because there's no way to tell how long this may take. Tell them realistically the job may take a really long time compared to starting with a clean slate.

[HardScaper26]

That's like using used, mortared bricks to build a wall. It takes more time/money to just get new stone. The overall apperance will be that much better too. Maybe you can put his old walk on a pallet and reuse it at some other job in the future.