On Sep 10, 2:33 pm, wrote:
On 10 Sep, 13:30, Stuart Noble
wrote:

wrote:
We live in a semi-detached Edwardian(1901) house in London which is
made from old yellow stock bricks. The pointing at the front and back
appear fine but the pinting in the alleyway is not so good in parts,
ie if I scrape at it with a screwdriver it is soft and brittle and
falls out. It's not one particular patch that's bad it's quite random.
I'm only checking the bottom 10 feet. The alleyway is about 2.5 feet
wide and is quite sheltered so this wall doesn't get a lot of rain.

How does one decide if it needs doing? If I get a brickie around to
have a look the chances are he will claim it needs doing immediately.
As we may move in the next few years I'd rather not do it immediately.
Any suggestions appreciated.

Unless the wall's damp on the inside, I'd leave well alone.

Would it not be too late at that stage, ie would I end up having to do
work on the inside as well or would it be a matter of just letting it
dry out?

Well, if you let it get sufficiently damp that there is interior
damage, then you'd need to make good the interior damage - but
otherwise you just let it dry out.

Also note that your mortar is almost certainly lime mortar - which is
soft and can be scraped out with a screwdriver even when in the best
of condition.

I would a) leave well alone for the moment; b) make sure your repoint
with lime mortar when you need to (it's an easy DIY job - particularly
if you can borrow a cement mixer to mix the mortar).