On Sep 13, 12:09*am, "Dave Plowman (News)"
wrote:
In article ,
* *Cash wrote:
(and I nail into the cement joints on brickwork too),

Try that on most Victorian house and you'll just knock chunks out of the
pointing. The mortar is lime and often just has a thin portland cement
layer as pointing. The bricks are usually softer.

But if you knock out the portland cement pointing, you can repoint
with lime mortar (which is even softer than soft brick), and then nail
into that (and freeze-thaw won't damage your bricks any more).