Is this re pointing acceptable?

usman330

Had a brickey doing some work for me. He comes highly rated off mybuilder with 70 odd 100% reviews so I thought he must be ok and hired him.

This is the repointing he has done under the damp proof course all around the house. He ground out the old mortar using a angle grinder and then injected the new mortar in using some sort of electric injector gun.

Am I being fussy or does this look poor. Also, there is a lot of dusty cement stuck to the face on one side of the wall will this wash off?

He hasn't been fully paid yet so I would like to check if I should raise this as an issue.

agentk

It does not look fantastic. But its never going to look like the rest of the wall.

Brick acid will remove any residue and any smearing on brick faces. All the pointing if you apply over and over again.
If its still available H&S. PPE must be worn its acid! you apply with brush agitate leave it it fisses the cement away and swill with water.

jakemillspaek

The original pointing looks way too thin.Maybe a bit of neatening overspill and hopefully it will weather.

G_M

usman330 wrote: »

Had a brickey doing some work for me. He comes highly rated off mybuilder with 70 odd 100% reviews so I thought he must be ok and hired him.

:rotfl:

Sorry - but these websites really should be banned.

There's a whole raft of these sites making money for their owners by charging contractors to list or participate. Do you really think they are going to blacklist contractors who are paying them? And do you really believe that all those reviews are genuine?

Next time, use an independant site with no axe to grind or profit to make, like your council's Trading Standards, or Which?

thebananapimp

It really is tough to have an overall picture of the job without seeing a before picture. The jointing does look rather thick at times.

The bricks below DPC look different anyway as they are moisture resistant engineering bricks.

Some of the bricks below the DPC are damaged - was that true before or after he used the angle grinder? It might be worth getting him back in to clean up some of the messier bits with a steel brush or something: you have the leverage of MyBuilder feedback to rely on here and he wants your positive review!

If this was a pristine wall before the work then you might be more annoyed but considering the wall already has patches it's not awful aesthetically.

The joints remain staggered which is key, and the jointing though thick looks pretty consistent. It is not the job of an expert but not an amatuer either.

My guess would be that you went for the cheapest quote?

Hope this helps in some way,

TBP

Furts

It is not a good job, and the variable colour and finish to the right of the airbrick are a pointer to this.

Should one pay for this? Possibly yes, because the rest of the wall, the building and the finish are dreadful. Hence the pointing reflects this.

The crunch would be what OP agreed to pay, what requirement was set, and what specification was agreed.

Saying "some sort of electric injector gun" was used does not instill confidence in the knowledge of OP, nor the ability to control the work. The crux is how deep was it chased out? was this a cleaned out full height groove? was it wetted up before the new mix was applied? what mix was specified to replace it?

If OP has agreed that the new material comes out of a gun then what product was it agreed to use, and was this then used properly?

If pushed further for an opinion I would say OP has sought a cowboy typical of the MyBuilder type websites.

dacouch

thebananapimp wrote: »

It might be worth getting him back in to clean up some of the messier bits with a steel brush or something: you have the leverage of MyBuilder feedback to rely on here and he wants your positive review!

As GM has pointed out, Mybuilder is financed by the contractors, if a bad review is posted, they normally remove them leaving only glowing reviews