Re-pointing

[sxturbo]

Hi all,

Having the side of my house repointed and I have a question as to how deep the guy should go.

Unfortunately after attempting to get 4 People round to have a look at doing the work, although 4 turned up only 1 quoted and that was even with me pestering the other 3. I tried on my builder and various other sites and no one was interested in the job apart from this one guy.

The side access is very tight at 90cm and I've had proper scaffolding erected.

Anyway back to my original point, what the guy has taken out of the mortar doesn't appear to be very deep and I'm worried it will blow out in next to no time.

I've actually got a proper taking tool that attaches to an angle grinder (made by Irwin) that I purchased a few years back when my dad needed to do a bit of pointing, we used it once and the tool worked great but we found it a sod of a job to push the cement in, think one either has the knack or they dont., I think that goes about 25mm deep.

I've attached a couple of pics, what do you guys think?

 

[23vc]

Hard to tell exactly from the pics, but I was once told rake out twice the joint width (eg 20mm if theyre 10mm joints)

 

[johnny2007]

25mm is about standard.
I have the same irwin tool and it's good, however, i use a grinding disc to remove most of the old mortar, then the irwin attachment to "clean" the joints.
Your joints seems to be a bit shallow, but maybe pictures don't do justice.

 

[whatsthenews]

I can't help with the technical question, but we've had the same problems re repointing quotes. We got one guy to quote for a North east facing half gable end and garage side wall (the garage is attached to the gable end) plus repoint some small areas of bad spots on the back of the house. It's a 1960's 3 bed bog standard semi. He wanted £1900. Didn't go with him as he was a bit like a second hand car salesman. Glad we didn't as neighbour (whose relative recommended him) had some small bits of repointing work done. He quoted her £500 and ended up charging her nearly £800 because it took 3 days (he'd quoted 2 days) and they used 2 lots of Thompsons waterseal. 2 blokes were only there from 10-3.30pm. The young lad spent most of his time either on his phone and or having a smoke.
Seriously considering some sort of cladding/render as our bricks are porous (and ugly!).

 

[sxturbo]

Depth is between 10 & 15mm

I'll have to have a word with the guy tomorrow

 

[sxturbo]

I can't help with the technical question, but we've had the same problems re repointing quotes. We got one guy to quote for a North east facing half gable end and garage side wall (the garage is attached to the gable end) plus repoint some small areas of bad spots on the back of the house. It's a 1960's 3 bed bog standard semi. He wanted £1900. Didn't go with him as he was a bit like a second hand car salesman. Glad we didn't as neighbour (whose relative recommended him) had some small bits of repointing work done. He quoted her £500 and ended up charging her nearly £800 because it took 3 days (he'd quoted 2 days) and they used 2 lots of Thompsons waterseal. 2 blokes were only there from 10-3.30pm. The young lad spent most of his time either on his phone and or having a smoke.
Seriously considering some sort of cladding/render as our bricks are porous (and ugly!).

I did consider render but would have had to do the whole house, then paint it, turns out quite costly.

My house sounds similar to yours mine is gable wall and garage also, price quoted is £1350 + £450 for the scaffolding

 

[^woody^]

25mm. And nice and square.

That depth in the photos will lead to the pointing coming loose very soon, and is a cowboy job.

 

[sxturbo]

25mm. And nice and square.

That depth in the photos will lead to the pointing coming loose very soon, and is a cowboy job.

THANKS,

unfortunately he was only round for a couple of hours and i was stuck in meetings so didn't get a chance to chat to him.

i've sent him a text this morning, see if he calls me back, i have a feeling he will charge more to rake out deeper

 

[sxturbo]

just spoke to the pointer, said he will rake out to 25mm, he said its not a great deal more work, and the worst bit at the top of the gable was probaby that anyway.

ive asked him to point it flush aswell and he said he needs to get more sand to do a flush point as it has a different ratio to a half round point, is this correct?

 

[whatsthenews]

I did consider render but would have had to do the whole house, then paint it, turns out quite costly.

My house sounds similar to yours mine is gable wall and garage also, price quoted is £1350 + £450 for the scaffolding

Your bricks look a lot nicer and in better conditions than ours! I understand it'll be more costly, but (IF it's done right) with us having nasty porous bricks, I think it might be a better option and maybe we could add some insulation. I think you can get coloured render and maybe even render that has some insulating properties. Of course it'll all be more expensive than standard render.

 

[johnny2007]

Don't render bricks or you'll be forever a slave of fixing cracks and repainting every few years.
Repointing is done once every 50 years at most, but many houses have over a century old mortar on them and still ok.

 

[23vc]

You sure you want flush? Not sure what it’d look like on those bricks, it’s more often used on old uneven size bricks
Most common on yours after bucket handled would be recessed or weatherstruck

no idea why it’s a different ratio

 

[^woody^]

he said he needs to get more sand to do a flush point as it has a different ratio to a half round point, is this correct?

LOL. No he's chatting shiit.

The joint gets filled up in either case , it's just then ironed for half-round or weathered, or left and rubbed for flush.

Incidentally, flush pointing is the least weather resisting, so should be avoided for exposed walls. And if your guy is as shiit as he seems to be, weathered will look even shiitter.

 

[johnny2007]

Half round is fine.

 

[sxturbo]

LOL. No he's chatting shiit.

The joint gets filled up in either case , it's just then ironed for half-round or weathered, or left and rubbed for flush.

Incidentally, flush pointing is the least weather resisting, so should be avoided for exposed walls. And if your guy is as shiit as he seems to be, weathered will look even shiitter.

ah ok, so spoke to him again and we are back to doing half round pointing.

i think i'm getting on his nerves.

in his defence he has been quite amenable always pleasant and polite, turns up when he says he would etc.

i'm certain he will do a better job than me, unfortunately as stated before no one was interested in coming round to do it, i tried a lot of companies, only 3 turned up and 1 quoted. i hate trying to find decent tradesman from experience most are cowboys or just not interested