The front of my house needs some re-pointing, where the lime mortar has
been washed away over the years. Unlike the back, however, it was built
with (AIUI) penny joints, ie about a 2-3mm mortar line, so it seems the
normal approach for ~10mm joints is unlikely to work well here.

Is anyone aware of any useful tricks or tips for this situation that
might make it less of a PITA?

Cheers

On 21/06/2017 15:14, GMM wrote:
The front of my house needs some re-pointing, where the lime mortar has
been washed away over the years. Unlike the back, however, it was built
with (AIUI) penny joints, ie about a 2-3mm mortar line, so it seems the
normal approach for ~10mm joints is unlikely to work well here.

Is anyone aware of any useful tricks or tips for this situation that
might make it less of a PITA?

Steady hand with an icing gun and a small spatula? ;-)

I'd be interested in tips and tricks for doing ordinary lime mortar
repointing on old walls too. Some needs doing on our village hall.

I'd be especially interested in any tricks to match the colour and
texture to existing tarnished and rather rustic surface so that new
repairs do not stick out like a sore thumb. I was thinking of adding a
trace of carbon black in the mix to take the edge off the whiteness.


--
Regards,
Martin Brown

On 21/06/2017 15:26, Martin Brown wrote:
On 21/06/2017 15:14, GMM wrote:
The front of my house needs some re-pointing, where the lime mortar
has been washed away over the years. Unlike the back, however, it was
built with (AIUI) penny joints, ie about a 2-3mm mortar line, so it
seems the normal approach for ~10mm joints is unlikely to work well here.

Is anyone aware of any useful tricks or tips for this situation that
might make it less of a PITA?

Steady hand with an icing gun and a small spatula? ;-)

Is the OP looking for "tuck-pointing" or "penny rolling"? AIUI only
tuck-pointing involves inserting a narrow white mix into mortar that
matches the colour of the bricks; penny rolling just (huh!) makes a
straight, smooth line on the roughened mortar.

I can't help beyond that. I can do good pointing. Tuck-pointing might
as well be a dive from the 10m board, backward, with 2.5 somersaults and
2.5 twists in the piked position - with no water in the pool.



--
Robin
reply-to address is (intended to be) valid

On 21/06/2017 15:46, Robin wrote:
...I can do good pointing.


that should be "can't do..." - as also in "can't do good typing"

--
Robin
reply-to address is (intended to be) valid

On Wednesday, 21 June 2017 15:26:53 UTC+1, Martin Brown wrote:
On 21/06/2017 15:14, GMM wrote:
The front of my house needs some re-pointing, where the lime mortar has
been washed away over the years. Unlike the back, however, it was built
with (AIUI) penny joints, ie about a 2-3mm mortar line, so it seems the
normal approach for ~10mm joints is unlikely to work well here.

Is anyone aware of any useful tricks or tips for this situation that
might make it less of a PITA?

Steady hand with an icing gun and a small spatula? ;-)

I'd be interested in tips and tricks for doing ordinary lime mortar
repointing on old walls too. Some needs doing on our village hall.

I'd be especially interested in any tricks to match the colour and
texture to existing tarnished and rather rustic surface so that new
repairs do not stick out like a sore thumb. I was thinking of adding a
trace of carbon black in the mix to take the edge off the whiteness.

Use new sand etc that matches the existing. Sometimes other additions were used eg shells.

Tinting to match old mortar results in a long term mismatch as mortars gradually darken a bit due to surface dirt. Better to wait until all set & apply a biofilm forming liquid eg watered down yogurt, excrement etc. I doubt the latter is legal now.


NT

On 21/06/2017 15:46, Robin wrote:
On 21/06/2017 15:26, Martin Brown wrote:
On 21/06/2017 15:14, GMM wrote:
The front of my house needs some re-pointing, where the lime mortar
has been washed away over the years. Unlike the back, however, it
was built with (AIUI) penny joints, ie about a 2-3mm mortar line, so
it seems the normal approach for ~10mm joints is unlikely to work
well here.

Is anyone aware of any useful tricks or tips for this situation that
might make it less of a PITA?

Steady hand with an icing gun and a small spatula? ;-)

Is the OP looking for "tuck-pointing" or "penny rolling"? AIUI only
tuck-pointing involves inserting a narrow white mix into mortar that
matches the colour of the bricks; penny rolling just (huh!) makes a
straight, smooth line on the roughened mortar.

I can't help beyond that. I can do good pointing. Tuck-pointing might
as well be a dive from the 10m board, backward, with 2.5 somersaults and
2.5 twists in the piked position - with no water in the pool.



Well, that's sold me on the latter for sure, although I wasn't really
thinking so much about the finish, as about how to actually get the
mortar into the very narrow gaps: On 'conventional' brickwork, I would
normally chop out a line of mortar on a hawk (or a float, although that
may give some a heart attack!), then press that into the prepared gap
with a small trowel before finishing. Somehow, I just can't imagine
that ending well in these penny joints. It would be easy enough to
cover them, but to bed the mortar properly into the joint looks tricky.

On 21/06/2017 15:26, Martin Brown wrote:
On 21/06/2017 15:14, GMM wrote:
The front of my house needs some re-pointing, where the lime mortar
has been washed away over the years. Unlike the back, however, it was
built with (AIUI) penny joints, ie about a 2-3mm mortar line, so it
seems the normal approach for ~10mm joints is unlikely to work well here.

Is anyone aware of any useful tricks or tips for this situation that
might make it less of a PITA?

Steady hand with an icing gun and a small spatula? ;-)

I'd be interested in tips and tricks for doing ordinary lime mortar
repointing on old walls too. Some needs doing on our village hall.

I'd be especially interested in any tricks to match the colour and
texture to existing tarnished and rather rustic surface so that new
repairs do not stick out like a sore thumb. I was thinking of adding a
trace of carbon black in the mix to take the edge off the whiteness.


Maybe - if I could get the consistency right. It certainly looks like
some kind of squirting approach would be more successful.

I haven't even got as far as worrying about colour matching or how to
source the components to make the lime mortar, which looks like a
special challenge.....

On 21/06/2017 16:57, wrote:
On Wednesday, 21 June 2017 15:26:53 UTC+1, Martin Brown wrote:
On 21/06/2017 15:14, GMM wrote:
The front of my house needs some re-pointing, where the lime mortar has
been washed away over the years. Unlike the back, however, it was built
with (AIUI) penny joints, ie about a 2-3mm mortar line, so it seems the
normal approach for ~10mm joints is unlikely to work well here.

Is anyone aware of any useful tricks or tips for this situation that
might make it less of a PITA?

Steady hand with an icing gun and a small spatula? ;-)

I'd be interested in tips and tricks for doing ordinary lime mortar
repointing on old walls too. Some needs doing on our village hall.

I'd be especially interested in any tricks to match the colour and
texture to existing tarnished and rather rustic surface so that new
repairs do not stick out like a sore thumb. I was thinking of adding a
trace of carbon black in the mix to take the edge off the whiteness.

Use new sand etc that matches the existing. Sometimes other additions were used eg shells.

Tinting to match old mortar results in a long term mismatch as mortars gradually darken a bit due to surface dirt. Better to wait until all set & apply a biofilm forming liquid eg watered down yogurt, excrement etc. I doubt the latter is legal now.


NT

I suppose that's a good reason to do a large area all at once: Even if
it doesn't match other areas, at least it would be consistent over itself.
If it is illegal and it came to that, I've probably broken more
important rules in my time and can't imagine what the charge would be
for handling dilute yogurt in a private space.....

On 21/06/2017 22:59, GMM wrote:
snip

Well, that's sold me on the latter for sure, although I wasn't really
thinking so much about the finish, as about how to actually get the
mortar into the very narrow gaps:

Sorry, I misread your original post. If the whole joint between 2
bricks is just 2-3mm then that's not "penny rolled" AIUI. You seem to
have "rubbed" or engineering bricks - bricks which could be laid with
just a thin mortar bed. If so, I'm afraid I'm no use to you on how best
to rake out and point such narrow gaps.


--
Robin
reply-to address is (intended to be) valid

On 21/06/2017 23:01, GMM wrote:
On 21/06/2017 15:26, Martin Brown wrote:
On 21/06/2017 15:14, GMM wrote:
The front of my house needs some re-pointing, where the lime mortar
has been washed away over the years. Unlike the back, however, it
was built with (AIUI) penny joints, ie about a 2-3mm mortar line, so
it seems the normal approach for ~10mm joints is unlikely to work
well here.

Is anyone aware of any useful tricks or tips for this situation that
might make it less of a PITA?

Steady hand with an icing gun and a small spatula? ;-)

I'd be interested in tips and tricks for doing ordinary lime mortar
repointing on old walls too. Some needs doing on our village hall.

I'd be especially interested in any tricks to match the colour and
texture to existing tarnished and rather rustic surface so that new
repairs do not stick out like a sore thumb. I was thinking of adding a
trace of carbon black in the mix to take the edge off the whiteness.


Maybe - if I could get the consistency right. It certainly looks like
some kind of squirting approach would be more successful.

I haven't even got as far as worrying about colour matching or how to
source the components to make the lime mortar, which looks like a
special challenge.....

I acquired a big tub of wet lime putty. You mix it with the sand in
small batches as needed and away you go. Keeps OK sealed inside the pot.
(I think it continues to mature for quite a while)

http://www.buildingconservation.com/.../limebasic.htm

Took several goes to find an acceptable coloured sand to match and even
longer to find some rounded fine grain small pebble grit. The final
stage I recall involved gentle wire brush to expose them.

Main problem I had was the new pointing repairs were very much brighter
than the soot and algae stained hundred year old mortar. But at least
afterwards it was weatherproof and the colour did match eventually.

--
Regards,
Martin Brown

On Wed, 21 Jun 2017 23:04:38 +0100, GMM wrote:



I'd be especially interested in any tricks to match the colour and
texture to existing tarnished and rather rustic surfac

Tinting to match old mortar results in a long term mismatch as mortars gradually darken a bit due to surface dirt. Better to wait until all set & apply a biofilm forming liquid eg watered down yogurt, excrement etc. I doubt the latter is legal now.

I've probably broken more
important rules in my time and can't imagine what the charge would be
for handling dilute yogurt in a private space.....
Racial abuse, you would not be respecting someones Culture.

G.Harman