Repointing a house

[Jigsaw]

Anyone had any experience of repointing brickwork?

If so, any bits of advice, pitfalls and any tips?

Thanks.
J.

 

[another_sparky]

I've renewed 3 courses of blue bricks all around My house, took me weeks of partime work during the summer of 1990 - although its not strictly pointing.. I could offer a little advice:

Buy a 4 1/2 ( 115mm) angle grinder ( and blade) for getting out the old pointing.

The angle grinders are dirt cheap at screwfix ( the blades cost more)

I've seen somewhere that you can also buy applicators that squeeze the new mortar between the joints.

Personally I used the side of an old chisel and hand- tamped the new mortar back in... (I had to relay the blues 'in situ' - if you know what I mean.)

Oh and the strongest advise I could give is..... use a new ( fresh) bag of cement.
Dont do as I did, and riddle out the lumpy bits...!!

 

[nstreet]

One of these is the slighlty more energetic method of removal

One of these for your angle grinder

One of these to put the icing on the cake

 

[oilman]

What sort of joints are you repointing, is it lime mortar? What are the bricks? Are they a soft type? If the answer to the first and last questions is yes, DON'T use cement, and DON'T use a power tool to remove the old mortar. If it doesn't almost fall out, it might well not need repointing.

More info available if it's lime.

 

[renovator]

the tool for safe removal of mortar is called a mortar pick, looks like an elfin pickaxe.
Power tools do work but introduce a potential to damage the mortar joint through the entire wall thickness and additionally damage the brick/stone surface.

 

[oilman]

What's an elfin pick axe? I assume it different from an effin pick axe

 

[renovator]

an elfin pick axe is a wee tiny pick axe.

looks just like a normal pick axe but is only a foot or so handle length with equally scaled down point and chisel ends on the head.

see this

 

[mildmanneredjanitor]

Isn't that what Andy Dufrain used in Shawshank???

 

[renovator]

no, in the shwashank redemption andy used a geologists axe.

the geoligsts axe is very similar to a bricklayers hammer, chisel one end and heavy lump the other

 

[Scoby_Beasley]

What's an elfin pick axe? I assume it different from an effin pick axe

I have half an "effin pick axe" the other half is in the neighbours after the shaft broke. I've never seen the daughters boyfriend move so fast (unless food is mentioned)!!!!!

 

[Jigsaw]

Thanks for the replies everyone.

No, it's not lime, not sure about the brickwork, it's just a bog-standard 1950's town house type construction, but thanks for the offer of more advice. I like this forum.

Am going to check out the links above.

 

[oilman]

If it's 1950s, does it really need repointing? Thats very young for such an exercise.

 

[Jigsaw]

Oh yes. And it's pretty much all down one wall unfortunately. Oh joy! We did know what we were letting ourselves in for when we bought it though and at least it's structurally sound. Am a bit frightened what will happen when we start the DIY work in earnest as there may be skeletons I just hope we' haven't bitten off more than we can chew, but hopefully it will look all nice and dandy when we've finished.

 

[oilman]

That'll e ok then, you don't often come across chewy skeletons.

 

[Jigsaw]

Depends how fresh they are!