Re-Pointing Services

 

When it comes to repointing brickwork, nobody comes close to Elder Re-Pointing. From your first phone call, you know you are in safe hands. Our friendly and professional team will arrange a consultation at the property in question, where we will inspect the damaged wall, to determine the extent of the damage to the existing pointing. Once this is done, we remove the existing mortar and replace it. As well as regular brick repointing work, our team of experts can also perform tuck pointing and lime mortar pointing, when required, all as part of our impeccable brick repointing service.

Lime mortar pointing, tuck pointing, and repointing brickwork make up the bulk of instructions we receive, but we can also help you if you need to repoint your garage, or if you want us to clean and repair any of the brickwork on your property that may have become damaged or dirty.

 

What is brick repointing?

Pointing is the technical term used by masons and those in the construction industry to describe the bonding material that joins bricks and stonework together in a building. In the early days this was often a mixture of lime, water, and some sort of aggregate such as sand. Since the early 1930s, this type of pointing was overtaken in popularity by a substance known as Ordinary Portland Cement mortar (sometimes referred to as OPC mortar). This mortar replaced the lime with cement, mixed again with water and sand to produce a malleable, hard-setting paste.

Pointing is deliberately mixed to be less durable than the surrounding stones or bricks. In the past it would have been to allow the easy dismantling of a wall, whilst leaving the valuable building materials relatively intact. These days, of course, drilling through mortar is an easy way to attach outdoor electricity cables into a property.

 

What are the consequences of damaged pointing?

It really depends on the extent of the damage. It’s conceivable that a small bit of pointing damage can go unnoticed, and provide no ill effects to a property. However, it is more likely that damaged pointing will lead to serious consequences. A crack or a hole in a property’s mortar can allow the ingress of water into a building, resulting in water damage, damp and rot. Particularly severe disintegration of the mortar and result in a risk to the structural integrity of a building, and even the collapse of a wall. Moreover, left to its own devices, poorly maintained and damaged pointing can only possibly get worse.

 

This is why repointing brickwork is so important.