Repointing with lime

FreeBear

Depending on how much sand you need, run it through a sieve. I have a couple from the kitchen & garden that I use. Best to store the sand in a shed/garage for a little while to let it dry out a bit.

Grenage

Excellent, thanks guys.  I'll grab a garden sieve and filter anything out that's too large.

Grenage

I knocked up a very small amount of mortar so see its final colour and consistency.  The colour is indeed quite white, especially contrasting the 120 year-old mortar with has dirtied over the years.  Still, I like it.

The Bay window was a later edition and has used cement mortar.  I wasn't originally going to touch it as it's more than sound, but if the contrast is too great I might redo that as well.

I assume there's no great issue with pointing a cement wall with lime to match?

stuart45

No real problem using lime. You can adjust the colour by mixing different sands. The one in the photo was a test sample for a job, a mix of 2 6mm down and 1 fine ginger sand and 1 NHL 3.5. Sands & Aggregates (limebase.co.uk) Finishing the joints with a metal jointer changes the colour.

Grenage

Thanks as always, Stuart.

Grenage

Just wanted to swing by and say thanks again; it's all done.

The weather was half boiling sun and half torrential rain.  The wall was in a much worse state than I thought; a couple of rows of wall ties had expanded, lots of bricks could be pulled out by hand, and the sporadic cement pointing merely hid the dust behind.

Some of the perps were about 2-3mm wide which was a pain.  I started with a plugging chisel but wasn't getting very far.  A spindle mortar rake blunted after 3 metres, so I ended up using an angle grinder and a screwdriver for the perps.

Still, all good now.  Really enjoyed working with lime.  I did opt to add pozzelan in the end.

GDB2222

Just in case it helps anyone, there's a technical guide here. 

https://www.hgstrust.org/documents/technical-guidance-on-pointing-of-brickwork.pdf

Bit late for the OP, I know.