UKH

Hi folks,

I had a bricklayer round yesterday to look at repointing part of our house that's in a poor state. While here he pointed out another (large) part of the wall that has been repointed before (not by us) and which I thought was ok, but he says has not been ground out properly and will not last long term, so he advised getting that done too.

I wanted to get a second opinion - is there anyone knowledgeable on here? I've attached a picture of the stuff he said should be redone.

Thanks

Si

In reply to Si dH: I’m by no means an expert, but have done a bit of raking out. From your pic it looks like they’ve run the grinder along the joints and only removed one blade’s width of old mortar, rather than the full width of the joint, so the new mortar will be stuck to old stuff, rather than the edges of the bricks. It also looks like they’ve done the perps with the grinder too, so didn’t get into the corners, which will have barely any new mortar in. The rule of thumb is to rake out to 25mm deep everywhere. I wouldn’t be surprised if it didn’t last, especially if the wall faces into the weather, but couldn’t guess at how long it’ll keep the wind and rain out for.

It’ll look neater if it’s all re-done at the same time as it’ll all be the same colour, finish, weathering etc. If it needs scaffolding, it’ll cost you more to get it done as two separate patches rather than doing it in a oner, so take those factors into account before you decide.

Hope that helps.

In reply to Si dH:

No expert by any stretch but I had a little read around it in the past when patching my own place up.

It's not obvious to me from the pic that it has been repointed, something has happened, it may be more obvious by contrast with the rest of the wall.

It looks like the raking out may have been started but never finished. Or it's been re-pointed then cut to produce/match a decorative finish (the name of the finish escapes me, google says 'grapevine').

The pointing, ignoring the cuts, looks ok to my untrained eye.

jk

In reply to Si dH:

I do work in building. There are a couple of tools to remove old mortar. One is a grinding disk that generally removes mortar at around 20-25mm depth and the other is a raking tool that fits to a grinder. Whatever method is used, the mortar must be removed right up to the brick edges and not just the blade width.

Weather and temps are also a factor as direct sunlight on a hot day will dry the mix too quickly on a south facing wall and bake the new mortar rather than allow it to chemically cure or set. I've seen some builders soak the wall first on hot days to slow down the drying.

It looks like the person who has done this old pointing has used a  black mortar dye. I'd also agree with your bricklayers assessment that the work does look a bit rough.

Advice I'd also throw in is never hire from a builder recommendation website but always on personal recommendation. Facebook has local groups that can be a good place to start, the feedback on them are usually genuine and not fake reviews.

In reply to Si dH:

Looks like that's going to let more water through than yer Nan's knickers.

In reply to olddirtydoggy:

Thanks all. Maybe I'll get this done now as well as the rest of the wall. It's expensive unfortunately, a very big wall, but there you go.

Re: recommendations, I find it really hard to find any. We only moved in just before the pandemic and don't know many people locally. None of our neighbours seem to know someone they'd recommend. This will be the 3rd bricklayer we've tried now.... the first was a guy off mybuilder whose work was poor, the second was from a Facebook group and did a good job of a garden wall but we then fell out because he left a skip full of waste on my drive for a fortnight afterwards. This latest guy is recommended by our roofer, who himself was originally a Facebook recommendation and has done good work for us himself. I need them to work together as the roofer is doing some work from the scaffold too. Fingers crossed.

(Not really expecting a reply to this last post. I just find it incredibly difficult and stressful finding workmen who are available and not useless. We just had our bathroom done and it took them four months!)

In reply to Si dH:

It's a funny time for the industry. I'm booked up 10 months in advance due to the boom in home improvements. To get a rec off another trademan is the best way as very few of us will put our name to somebody that will reflect negatively. Networking through tradesmen will get you a top job.

Good advice is always hire a busy man, there's usually a good reason why. Good luck.