Repointing A House Wall – DIY or GSI?

The front wall of my house could do with repointing – it’s very exposed and the mortar on this wall is in bad condition.  It’s Cotswolds stone(ish) bricks so all square ish, but in odd shapes patterns, not all on the same lines or mortar thickness, etc.  Think 1970s council house trying to look like it should be allowed in the Cotswolds.

Is this a job I can do myself or do I get someone in to do it?  If the former, what tools would one usually need?  If the latter how much and how long?  By my estimates there’s around 25 square meters of wall.  The vast majority does not need scaffolding.  Maybe 8sqm does.

I’d get someone in – it’s a relatively simple task, but it is far from easy to do it cleanly. And if you make a mess of it, you won’t be getting the mortar off easily.

How much mortar have you actually lost, and what is it?

Rule of thumb I was taught was that there’s no point in repointing anything that’s lost much less than 25mm, as the first thing you do is scrape it out to 25mm depth…

And lime or cement mortar? And be careful how hard/strong the replacement mortar is as it can result in surrounding brickwork becoming damaged.

Is it made of actual stone or cement/manufactured blocks?  That may affect mortar strength/stiffness/porosity requirements.

I’d get someone in, but not just any old builder who’ll bang in some very hard, ugly grey cement mortar that’s impossible to remove and knackers the clockwork over the next 10-15 years…  Hard to find someone to do that kind of work as it’s slow. Laborious and skilled.

GSI, it’s a horrid task & by the time you’ve burnt out a few domestic angle grinders and mortar discs while wearing a proper mask and goggles you’ll be wishing you’d never started. You also need pointing kit to get the mortar back in the right place. Keith is right  – getting the mortar the right strength so it dies before the stonework surrounding it is a black art. I’ve looked into it for our stonebuilt moneypit and pretty rapidly decided that running away was the best policy.

I’ve bodged small sections – there’s no way I’d do 25 sqm!!

And as is usually the case – if you have to ask, then GSI. Get the wrong mortar mix with the wrong stone/brick and you could end up with big issues a few years down the line.

I’d GSI but, are you someone that picks things up quickly?  You might pick up pointing quickly, it’s not ‘hard’ but it’s hard to do neatly until you’ve got the knack.  If there is a small and less obvious bit you can try for yourself you’ll soon know if you’re a dab hand or confirm GSI.   At least tools are cheap, bucket and trowel,  stiff brush.  Materials also cheap, a bag of cement,  bag of soft sand,  bottle of plasticiser.   If you give it a try,  make the mix drier than you think.

The house isn’t really missing much/any mortar at all, but there are a lot of cracks in it.  Is this not what I need?

In driving rain, the walls leak into the cavity and then onto the window lintels and eventually into the house…I suspect this is both the mortar and the fact that the bricks are porous.

It’s not a difficult job, but as others have said it’s time consuming and someone who does it for a living will be miles quicker for a similar quality. I’ve done small patches here and there, especially as previous bodgers had used modern mortar on an old stone house…I went on a one-day lime mortaring course (knowing absolutely nothing about it at the outset) and then got stuck in more seriously for a while when we had scaffolding up for other reason anyway (windows). There were places where there was literally no mortar left, just blocks of stone balancing on each other, which was a bit alarming. It helped a lot with leaks.

Or you could do what the previous owner also did in places and just squirt mastic into the cracks 🙂

brick is porous anyway (no idea on the cotswoldy stuff you have) – which is one of the reasons why cavity walls originally exist – its reasonable for a little water to make it inside and run down the cavity. The lintels should have little trays above them to catch the drips and direct them back out the front of the house (or something to that effect) if thats missing then re-doing the pointing may achieve nothing

Or you could do what the previous owner also did in places and just squirt mastic into the cracks

ahh so the halfwit who lived here also lived in yours?

It all depends on the mortar pattern. If it’s flush, or worse, externally raised then I’d give it a miss and GSI

If it’s one of several internal “struck” patterns then I’d be tempted to have a go

It’s tedious and time-consuming, even for a pro, so will cost

I am almost certain that there are no cavity trays.