The Natural Philosopher wrote in message ...
Lobster wrote:

"Christian McArdle" wrote in message . net...

wondering if anyone could give me a little guidance here. i live in a
semi-detached house that need some repointing doing to the brickwork.

Whoever you use, first check to see that you don't have lime mortar. If
modern cementious mortar is used to repoint a lime mortar house, you could
cause serious damage and some of the brain dead spods that get contracted to
do the work wouldn't have a clue.


I'm probably going to need some repointing done soon. I'm assuming
that my house (1900's terraced) will have been built using lime
mortar, right? Assuming so, what are my chances of finding a brickie
who will use it these days? Won't they all just want to use
cement-based stuff instead?


Hi.

One point not mentioned yet is that sound mortar should never be
stripped out of old houses built with soft bricks. One should only
replace mortar that is loose and can be removed by hand. So you never
do a complete repoint, but always patch, and be prepared to patch
again several years later. The reason is that most of these houses
have been repointed already with cement, which is much stronger than
the bricks, and if you remove the cement it breaks part of the brick
away with it. You can do a lot of damage this way.


Regards, NT