Help - having a wall built - are they having a laugh?!

[sellgirl]

Hello, just wanted to ask people who knew more their view - am having a wall built at the front of my house - short wall with railings on top. The chap building the wall is doing it in an odd way in that he is not pointing it as he goes along - reckons he does it all at the end?

I guess my reason for questioning is that he is the slowest bricklayer so im concermed hes not as experienced as he claims!

Is that a recognised way of doung it, seems odd to me - is he just doing a bad job? Would really appreciate your view! Many thanks!

 

[^woody^]

Normally, the joints are finished as work proceeds - after a few courses are laid and the mortar starts to set.

I'd be wary of pointing it all afterwards.

 

[sellgirl]

Thanks Woody - when you say wary - as in the mortar will fall out if pointed afterwards?

I spoke to him, apparently hes always done it that way ..... Hmmm

 

[leeco]

Pointing is done when the mortar is getting a little stiff as its the easiest time to do it. I don't get how he can do it all at the end as it will have gone off and be solid.

 

[pred]

What sort of pointing is he doing? Normal is struck or bucket handle on houses.

On site it's quite normal to let the labourer do the pointing, usually twice a day, before dinner and before we go home, unless it's baking hot and the muck is going off fast.

 

[jeds]

Is he trying to match old 1930s jointing. It was common then to rake joints back and finish them later in a different mortar.

 

[tony1851]

It does seem odd pointing it when it's all done, if only because it would take him a lot longer to complete.

I don't think he's having a laugh - just incompetent; the world is full of tradesmen who have 'always done it that way'.

 

[noseall]

Retrospectively pointing fresh brickwork is absolutely nuts! I have never heard of anything so backward and stupid in all my life.

Why on earth would you fragment the weathering part of the brick joints when you don't need to?

Are you saying that he is raking back the joint then pointing it another day?

 

[stuart45]

If it's Weather Struck and Cut, the correct way to do it is rake out the joints and then point it at the end of the job. If it's bucket handle or weather struck it should be done as the work proceeds.

 

[jeds]

If it's Weather Struck and Cut, the correct way to do it is rake out the joints and then point it at the end of the job. If it's bucket handle or weather struck it should be done as the work proceeds.

Correct.

 

[noseall]

Why do you need to rake back for cut 'n' struck?

 

[noseall]

If it's Weather Struck and Cut, the correct way to do it is rake out the joints and then point it at the end of the job. If it's bucket handle or weather struck it should be done as the work proceeds.

Correct.

Says who?

 

[stuart45]

It's always been done that way. In the 30's it was popular to point it in white.
Doing it at the end also meant it was easier to gauge up the smaller amounts and get the colour right.
To do it as the work proceeds means you would have to get some over the top of the joints with the pointing trowel and as it is quite a slow job with the straight edge and frenchman the mortar in the brickwork would probably have gone off in places.

 

[mikric]

Perhaps he did his time over seas ? I had a good few years on the trowel in Germany/Holland in my youth and all face work was always raked out and pointed at the end of the job, seemed daft to me at first but saved a lot of grief for the brickies as you didnt have to worry about pointing and could really motor on with it and only rake back a couple of times a day. Pointing was a specialist trade in their own right and they made a cracking job, very fast and all mortar was gauged so no colour changes or tell tale signs of wet weather laying etc.
Maybe not the case here but just saying like

 

[noseall]

You would only need to rake out and retrospectively point if you intended having a different colour to the bedding mortar, otherwise just strike and cut. No need to actively rake out at all.

Load of bolaks.

I can not believe what i have read in the above posts.

P.S this is 2013 not 1920.