Tuckpointing: a wonderful thing

Lesmeister Guesthouse

Tuckpointing: The process of repairing a mortar joint in a brick wall. The term comes from the process of tucking mortar into the damaged mortar joint with the point of a trowel called a “pointing trowel.” Tuckpointing is a critical maintenance task and keeps water from entering the brick wall cavity.

Last week was tuckpointing week at the Lesmeister Guesthouse project. One hundred years of weather had eroded the original mortar joints deeply between the bricks of the building, and now all that mortar has been restored. It looks like a brand new 1902 building! In the front they colored the mortar red to match the original. In the back it’s the traditional uncolored mortar.

The plumbers have also begun their work and have the main drain line installed that will drain waste water out of the building. See photos below (click the photos to enlarge them for better viewing, then click the enlarged photo again to enlarge even more. Use your browser’s back button to return here):

All the exposed brick in the rear, and all the stone foundation, has new mortar. They also laid new brick to close up an old window opening (to the right of the white door) since a partition wall was built long ago to divide the buildings basement into two separate rooms. Notice the NEW window opening they have cut to the right of the old bricked-up window. This new window will let light into one of the basement bedrooms.

 

Workers digging the waist-deep trench (the plaster wall in the background ends at floor level) for the main drain pipe for the building.
This large PVC pipe, which will be deep beneath the concrete floor of the building, will carry waste water out of the building. It's the first major new thing in the building. There will be much to follow!

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Physical Address: 208 N Marr Street
Mailing Address: 2599 Thomasville RD
Pocahontas, Arkansas 72455 USA
Phone or Text to 1-501-291-1233
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Cancellation Policy: You can cancel a reservation and receive a refund of your reservation deposit, less a $25 cancellation fee, as long as the cancellation is made at least one week before your scheduled arrival date. If you cancel on shorter than one week’s notice, we will charge you for two night’s lodging (or for one night if you only booked one night) unless we are able to rent the room to someone else on short notice. If you do not show up for your reservation at all, and don’t contact us, we will hold the room for you, in case you’ve had travel delays, and you’ll be charged for the whole stay you booked.

Just a few steps from The Lesmeister…

  • Site of the 1863 capture of Civil War General Jeff Thompson
  • The Downtown Playhouse, featuring live plays and other events in our rehabilitated movie theater
  • 1872 Courthouse-Authentic Victorian Architecture
  • 1940 Courthouse-A jewel of late Art Deco Architecture
  • Randolph County Heritage Museum
  • Black River Overlook Park with walking trails along Black River, and many historical markers.
  • Arkansas’s First Quilt Trail
  • Black River Beads and Pottery Gallery
  • Civil War Memorial Walking Trail
  • Arkansas’s Oldest Barber Shop
  • Arkansas’s Oldest Drug Store
  • A Real Meteorite
  • Fully Restored 1921 Train Depot