Fred wrote:

I had seen them advertised for pointing but never knew about using
them for grout. I suppose it could be useful for pointing too, rather
than having to push the mortar in with a trowel, though I suppose some
trowel work is still needed if just to finish it?


I've not used one for pointing brickwork yet but I'm itching to.
They are a bit fiddly to get the consistency of the mortar right, it has to
be fairly wet and contain lots of plasticiser, otherwise the water squeezes
out of it behind the plunger and you end up with half a pint of cementy
water splashing about, but I've pointed a few patios with them recently and
it's much faster and gives a much better finish them trying to do it by
hand - the mortar, being wet, goes right to the bottom of the joint and
adheres well to both sides, 'dry' pointing tends to crack after a fairly
short while allowing ants to make matters worse and then weed seeds to take
hold, which push the slabs even further apart.

It will require trowelling over yes, because all it does is apply the mortar
in a uniform bead, you'd have to do a few metres and allow the moisture to
soak away before trowelling, or using a rounded jointing tool




--
Phil L
RSRL Tipster Of The Year 2008