Ask what repointing costs and the honest answer is that it depends on the wall. Two garden walls of the same length can take very different amounts of time if one is in soft old bricks with lime mortar and the other is modern brick with cement joints that come out cleanly. This guide does not give figures. Instead it explains the factors that drive the price of repointing brickwork, so you can understand a quote, compare like with like and give enough detail up front to get an accurate figure. It is written with small jobs in mind, such as garden walls and low level brickwork, which is the scale CRF Services Ltd works at.
1. The area of brickwork
The biggest single factor is how much wall there is. Repointing is slow, careful work done joint by joint, so time rises fairly directly with the square metres involved. A short run of joints under a window is a very different job to both faces of a long boundary wall. When you ask for a quote, measure the length and height of the area, and say whether one face or both need doing.
Bear in mind that a small area does not cost proportionally less. Mixing mortar, setting up and cleaning down take roughly the same time whatever the size, which is why tiny patches can look expensive per metre.
2. Mortar type, including lime
Walls built before roughly the middle of the twentieth century were usually laid in lime mortar, and they should be repointed in lime. Lime is softer and lets the wall breathe, which protects old soft bricks from frost damage. It also takes longer to work with. Lime mortar has to be kept damp while it cures, protected from sun, wind and frost, and it cannot be rushed in cold weather. That extra care adds time.
Modern walls in hard bricks can be repointed with a cement based mortar, which is quicker to use. Getting the mortar type wrong is the most common repointing mistake, and a cheaper quote that uses hard cement on an old lime wall is not a saving in the long run.
Colour matching also counts. Where new joints have to blend into old ones, test mixes with different sands are made and left to dry before the main work starts.
3. Access
Repointing a low garden wall from the ground is quick to set up. As soon as the work needs steps, a platform or a tower, the time rises, and above a certain height scaffolding is required, which is a separate cost and moves the job to a specialist. Access through the house, narrow side passages, plants growing against the wall and neighbours' gardens on the far side all affect how long the work takes. Say in advance if the back face of a wall is only reachable from next door.
4. Raking out depth
Before new mortar goes in, the old mortar has to come out to a sound depth, typically at least as deep as the joint is tall. Soft, crumbling joints rake out quickly. Hard cement repointing done in the past, often smeared over the brick faces, is slow to remove without damaging the brick edges and can take longer than the repointing itself. Very deep erosion, where the joints have washed back well into the wall, needs filling in layers, which also adds time.
5. Brick replacement
If bricks have spalled, cracked or crumbled, they need cutting out and replacing before the wall is pointed. Each replacement takes time to cut out cleanly, and the price of a matching brick varies a great deal. Reclaimed bricks are often the best match for an older wall, and they can take some finding. A handful of replacements is part of a normal small job; large numbers suggest a wider problem.
Other things that affect the quote
- Coping or capping bricks on top of the wall that need resetting
- Time of year, as lime work cannot go ahead in frost
- Cleaning old mortar smears or paint off the brick faces
- Clearing plants, ivy or soil away from the wall first
- Removing and disposing of the raked out mortar
When repointing is not the answer
If a wall is leaning, bulging, cracked through the bricks or moving away from a building, repointing will not fix it. That needs a structural assessment, and possibly rebuilding by a specialist. Repointing high walls, chimneys and whole elevations also needs a specialist with scaffolding. A tradesman working on small areas will say so at the first visit rather than quote for something unsuitable.
How to get an accurate quote
Send clear photos of the whole wall and a close up of the joints, the length and height of the area, the age of the wall if you know it, and how it is reached. The how to get an accurate quote guide has more on what to include.
Need it sorted? Book repointing
For garden walls, piers and low brickwork around Rochester and Medway, book repointing and brick repairs and send your photos through the quote form.
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