At last a project where 'use an angle grinder' is correct answer.
Need to remove a load of poor pointing on a patio ... advice is to use a mortar blade in a 4" angle grinder.
Anybody used these ....
They range in price from £9
To Erbauer at £25
To Spectrum at £31
That is a fair range in price, any of you used these ?
If it's so poor how come you need to grind it out?
Jim K
[snip]
I've not used any of the mortar diamond discs you listed, but I have bought a few ordinary thickness ones. Couldn't give you any makes (one might have been Erbauer) but they've never been expensive ones and I've had good (DIY level) life out of them.
I've found cheap diamond discs work nicely, and last more than enough to ju stify their low price.
But as someone semi- pointed out, where the mortar's still tough it can jus t be left alone.
NT
Don't necessarily agree. If you have strong mortar sticking to one slab but cracked leaving a small gap to the next slab, you are better to open it out to get fresh mortar in to a decent depth.
Jim K
Sure, that seems fairly obvious though. Attempt 2: where the mortar's still sound.
NT
*If* part of the problem is that the original mortar was made too strong, or perhaps does not go "full depth" you might think that even "sound" mortar could be vulnerable to cracking in future. But obviously it all depends on the area involved.
All mortar is vulnerable to cracking in future.
NT
because the joints have to be clean to 30mm depth ... need to clean out what is left
Not in this case ... I am replacing all of the mortar, in total of 185 sq m ... as it has been such a bad job .... look at this pic ... you can see how much has come out of this sect of path:
I am going to redo the lost with VDW 800 .... not cheap but the best there is:
Just shows you can't trust professional to get it right !
UK SelfBuild:
as an FYI if I use a pressure washer ... huge chunks of the stuff come out ... so the mortar is not good, but in places it will need to be raked out
It all went in as 3:1 ... some of it started coming away in less than 6 months ..... went back to contractor .. loads of responses such as 'I'll be there as soon as a gap between jobs etc.' then I get a 'we have ceased trading' ...
If I replace just part of it, it is likely to be a never ending job ... so going to bite the bullet and replace the lot with a Resin 2-part mortar.
Regarding angle grinding, what I have used in the past is several thin stone cutting discs stacks together to match the mortar width on the same angle grinder's mandrel. Only works for up to about 3 or 4 discs though as you run out of thread on the hub nut.
It helps if the mortar is considerably softer than the paving stones and that the mortar lines are all straight... the cutter is then "self guiding".
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