Brickwork and repointing

Brickwork and repointing were not part of the original offer. They got added because people who had already had Steve out for plastering kept asking whether he could sort the front steps or the garden wall while he was there.

Pointing is the sacrificial part of a brick wall. It is meant to wear before the bricks do, which is exactly why it needs replacing every few decades. The problem is that once it has eroded back far enough, water sits in the joint, gets in behind the face of the brick, and a winter of freezing and thawing starts taking the brick apart instead.

What we repoint and repair

• Front steps and thresholds, which take the most traffic and the most weather of anything on the property.
• Garden and boundary walls, including rebuilding sections where the wall has moved or bricks have blown.
• Porches, piers and gate posts.
• Bay window brickwork and decorative detailing, where the pointing has washed out but the brick is still good.
• Made-good brickwork where an old opening, vent or flue has been filled in badly and it shows.

Knowing when pointing needs doing

A quick test: take a screwdriver to a mortar joint. If you can rake it out easily, or if it comes away as sand, the pointing has had it. Other signs are joints that have receded well behind the face of the brick, mortar dropping out at the base of a wall, and damp patches appearing inside on an external wall.

None of this is an emergency on its own, but it does not get better on its own either. Repointing at that stage is a much smaller job than replacing spalled bricks after a few more winters.

Doing it properly

The joints get raked out to a proper depth first, not just scraped over. Skim-pointing over the top of old mortar looks fine for a season and then falls out in sheets.

The new mortar wants to suit the brick rather than be as strong as possible. On older, softer bricks a hard modern mix does more harm than good, because the mortar stops giving and the brick face takes the stress instead. Steve will look at what he is working with before deciding on the mix and the finish.

Where we work

Brickwork and repointing is available across Hanwell and the rest of West London.