Cost of repointing

casper_gutman

Interested in recent experience of the cost of repointing brickwork.

I have a large-ish four bedroomed red brick 1920s semi, originally pointed in blackened lime mortar but now a patchwork of repairs of unknown age (mostly poor quality - just cement smeared over the  tope really) with some areas of original pointing in poor condition. In a couple of places the mortar is missing, seemingly just due to weathering, to a depth of 1-2 inches so there's no doubt urgent attention is needed.

The whole side of the house has a single storey extension, which doesn't need repointing but presents a challenge for accessing the area above and I'd anticipate will add to the scaffolding costs.

I'm getting quotes to rake out existing mortar (both original and repairs) to a suitable depth and repoint in black lime mortar to restore the original appearance.

Any tips on what to ask and/or recent experience of pricing this sort of thing would be of great interest, please.

stuart45

Are the walls cavity or solid? What kind of finish are you looking for. E.g. Flush, weather struck, half round?
As you probably know, it's important that the bricklayers are genuinely experienced using lime mortar. Unfortunately a lot of the people that get into pointing are ones that weren't much good on the trowel.
You will probably be looking at around £60-70 per metre.

casper_gutman

stuart45 said:

Are the walls cavity or solid? What kind of finish are you looking for. E.g. Flush, weather struck, half round?
As you probably know, it's important that the bricklayers are genuinely experienced using lime mortar. Unfortunately a lot of the people that get into pointing are ones that weren't much good on the trowel.
You will probably be looking at around £60-70 per metre.

The walls have cavities (very narrow by modern standards). The finish on the original pointing is hard to judge as it's so weathered, but where it's sheltered (e.g., under a front porch) it's a concave/bucket handle sort of finish so I suppose I'd go for that unless there's a strong reason to prefer something else?

I've asked for quotes from a few different people, including bricklaying contractors who worked as subbies on our extension, some people who also do cleaning/restoration of stonework and were recommended by acquaintances, and also an outfit who did a lovely job repointing a former station building in the area (expecting them to be £££!), so fingers crossed I'll get at least a couple of prices to compare!

stuart45

casper_gutman said:

 it's a concave/bucket handle sort of finish so I suppose I'd go for that unless there's a strong reason to prefer something else?

There are quite a few different types, but you probably need to choose from flush, weather struck and cut, or bucket handle.
It depends to some extent on what the brickwork looks like when it's been raked out. If the joints have been made a bit bigger and more irregular a flush joint finished with the churn brush is worth considering. This is popular for lime as it exposes the aggregate. 
Bucket handle is most popular for new work as it's quick, but needs regular sized joints.
Weather struck and cut can make brickwork look more attractive but is more time consuming. 
Worth looking at the different styles on the net to help you decide.

FreeBear

How not to do it - https://www.periodproperty.co.uk/forum/threads/lime-pointing.17884/

Depending on the width of the mortar joints, a thin blade might be needed to get the cement out. It will need to be done very carefully though.

Grenage

I flush-pointed with lime after guidance by Stuart and others.  It was time consuming but quite satisfying.

In your position I would only hire someone after seeing prior work.  The consequences of bad work (as shown above) are hard to remedy.

casper_gutman

FreeBear said:

How not to do it - https://www.periodproperty.co.uk/forum/threads/lime-pointing.17884/

Depending on the width of the mortar joints, a thin blade might be needed to get the cement out. It will need to be done very carefully though.

Wow! Just terrible. 

Thanks for all the advice so far. I definitely agree this is an area for getting recommendations and looking at previous work. In fact, you're inspired me: I'm off to look at a job one of the firms quoting did round the corner now.