Effect of veg/bio on mortar?

[Tony]

My bund is built with concrete drive edging and sealed with 1:3 cement:sand with a waterproofing agent added.

However I've recently noticed that the mortar, which was really tough, I can now easily scrape it away where it has been in sustained contact with oil.  Now I'm worried about the walls of my outbuilding since it is brick built with soft mortar.  Anyone know anything about this?

The concrete floor of the outbuilding remains completely unaffected even after years of abuse.

[greasemonkey]

Interesting.
What water proofer did you use? Some or maybe all of them use a polymer to make it water proof. maybe the bio is attacking that. just a thought.

[Tony]

That is my suspicion too.  I think it was a polymer based waterproofer, I'll have a look at the drum tonight.

[K.H]

Well i know that bio eats concrete,ive seen evidence of it here

[greasemonkey]

To be fair, Dino will eat concrete eventualy.

[julesandtash]

It eats mortar readily - it totally degraded the mortar on my concrete block bund which started leaking. It even affects the blocks themselves.
That is why I ended up making a new fibreglass one.