Cost of re=pointing?

[John]

How much ahould I expect to pay for a builder to rake out and re-point a brick wall, priced either by the square yard/metre or by the day?

[Kipper at sea]

By the day about =A3130 labour only, not including material or scaffolding. Best to get a fixed quote for the whole lot. usually quoted on the square yard/metre. Day rate is a no no, believe me.

[John]

Thanks Kipper. I'd be worried about a day rate for the obvious reasons. How many square metres should a good man be able to do in a day, assuming all materials available on site?

[Kipper at sea]

Depends on how much in depth is taken out, which method one uses to take out the old motar and which type of pointing you your self like. There are different types of pointing, trowel point cut, buckit hand and bag rubbed. How, much at a guess 4 m2

[Booty]

We had a very large gable end on a vacant end Victorian terraced house re-pointed and new cavity wall ties ( the drill and tighten up type, can't remember the name of them now ) fitted in the North West about 2 1/2 years ago. We used a recommended, sole trader, builder. He arranged the scaffolding and paid for it.

He also fitted some lateral restraints due to some movement where the gable connects to an internal wall. Plastering there was excluded - my nephew is a plasterer and he did that.

It took him and his helper about 4 weeks IIRC. Gave him the keys to the property for the duration so they could come and go as suited them.

The total cost was in the region of £1,400 ( cash ) and that was a bargain considering we had had quotes in the region of £4,000. I know that seems cheap for 2 persons for 4 weeks including scaffolding and materials but that is what we paid.

Don't know the sq mtr measurements but they are high ceilings on the ground and first floor, and the length is about 25 - 30 ft, and it's a steep roof.

Great job and nice chap to boot. No problems following the job.

You guessed it, I have kept his phone No in my diary.

[John]

Thanks for the info. I have received a couple of quotes now.

[Gill Smith]

did you think about getting it rendered too?

(I've just thought: my gable end wall needs re-rendering

when the old stuff is removed, should the exposed brickwork be re-pointed

or is the whole point of rendering to protect the brickwork, so it doesn't need re-pointing!)

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[Booty]

subject to the worst of the weather.

It didn't need it, and, the man who did the repointing used a diamond cutter disk ( several ) to cut back the existing mortar about 1 cm into the joints before repointing to effect a good joint.

I was down there doing the renovations much of the time he was there and when he left each evening during the cutting back stage I actually looked at what he had been doing and he did cut back that depth.

Another reason is that I'm not keen on rendering. The rear wall of the property was rendered teens of years ago - it used to belong to my wife's parents before we renovated it so I know the history - and it adds complexity when window frames etc need changing, especially matching in any patch render.

Also, we noticed during renovation, that, a few hairline cracks in that rendering caused some damp patches to appear indoors ( solid 9" wall on the rear elevation ) quite a distance from the cracks and that damp was difficult for us to diagnose being that the whole wall was rendered and we couldn't see beneath.

Some parts of that rendering also 'tap hollow' now, so in years to come, more work needed there though the damp ingress cured for now.

Properly pointed bricks will never tap hollow.

We still own the house, my daughter lives there, but if money was no object I'd prefer to have that rendering totally removed from the rear elevation, the bricks cleaned up properly and the whole rear wall re pointed.

The house is in Accrington Brick ( NORI - engineering brick, they don't usually need protecting when pointed properly ) and the repointed wall now looks great and the internal damp issues on that wall have vanished since the repointing. It looks much better than the rendered rear wall.

Personally, if in your position, rather than spend your money on re rendering after 'striping' and re pointing, I'd look at the respective costs of having the stripped and previously rendered bricks, cleaned properly of all old rendering and just have them re pointed. I'm assuming it wasn't rendered from new and that there are good BRICKS underneath.

For new rendering to adhere properly in the longer term they will be stripping anyway, but they may not strip as well as they should if it is being re rendered because any deficiencies wont show for years.

The cost of stripping properly might not be that much different to the cost of the re rendering afterwards and any flaws will not be hidden under the new render. And patch repairs to the pointing will be easier to do in years to come.

But I don't know your house and I'm not a builder - you need to research it yourself. Just as we did with all aspects of the renovation we did.

Hope this helps.

.

[Gill Smith]

certainly does

many thanks

trying to scout out decent builders in my home town

got my eye on a local outfit building an extension.......

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