Re-pointing per metre?

[lostinfens]

Hi again all,

Just put in a price for re-pointing in proper lime mortar and wondering how my price compares with the going rate wheresoever you are? -Using own tower scaff.

On an unrelated thread-- Hired a digger for long weekend & it piffed down the entire day yesterday- first real rain in 3 months!

 

[noseall]

£50 p/m......?

Hard luck with the excavator. There is nowt worse than doing groundwork in the rain. Miserable.

 

[stuart45]

£50 is fair, considering you need to babysit it for the next few months.

 

[lostinfens]

I'm actually going to try Hydraulic lime instead of lime putty. It's a bit of daring deviation from the norm, but what the hell? Must move forward into this brave new century, may even try one of those new "cordless" telephonic devices.
My quote was nearer £35 plus add ons for reveals, arches etc. -I'm cheap, but by christ I'm rough

 

[ABCwarrior]

You'll get on better with hydraulic lime at least it carbonates properly and quicker. Non Hydraulic(putty) is a nightmare waste of time and the current consensus on it is that it's really only suitable for internal works or areas externally that are very sheltered(from rain, prevailing winds etc).
We were forced to use it for years and although it was a pleasure to put in(fatty, sticky, workable) it always failed and never achieved any strength or durability.
I take it your prices are per sq metre not linear!- is that for raking out,tamping and pointing? Or just pointing? Depends on the stonework I suppose- large ashlar blocks? random rubble?coursed rubble?

 

[lostinfens]

I used lime putty on various elevations & never had a problem, except for sparrows pecking at it where there was a wire to perch on. On an exposed gable near me its been sat happily for years with no visible deterioration. I do use a pozzolan where necessary and have re-used the old lime mortar ground down & added to the mix. This can give a really nice aged look & colour, but needs some work to get the mix right.
The quote is for brickwork, flemish garden wall bond & includes raking etc. The scaffolding isn't really an issue, most is fairly low & there is a caretaker at the building who would look after the daily damping. It's a local job which I pass on an almost daily basis, but is a public building and so there is the usual "committee" to get past. The re-pointing is the main work with a few other bits & bats on top.
The rates around here are not the national average & frankly I could do with the work. If I could get £50/metre for repointing, I wouldn't do anything else

 

[ABCwarrior]

Me too! Our squad was put through the National Progression Award in Conservation Masonry and one of the lecturers there was saying he had a big repointing job to do for a bank in Edinburgh when he worked self employed, and it was tight ashlar joints which needed raked out with a hacksaw blade basically, fully taped to prevent staining plus the repointing and aftercare and costs were knocking on £150 a metre....

 

[lostinfens]

Don't think I'll quite go to those extremes, prob chuck it from 6' away & see what sticks.
Or use a grinder & finger trowel, haven't decided which. The problem with this building is general maintenance & the use of soft reds sub dpc which is about 2'6" from ground.