Re-pointilism

I have progressed further with my re-pointing. It’s not perfect and it’s certainly not finessed like federation tuckpointing, but I know I am going to render the house so I don’t need to be as pristine as all that.

And now that I have a bit of a knack for it, I can actually go faster which is excellent. I have now done all the back of the house barring a 1 metre strip towards the far end (behind the lemon tree) and barring underneath the drain pipes (DIY Dad needs to help me remove the drain pipes for that bit to be finished):

Still needs a clean up, but that is one Sunday's worth of work right there

Things I have discovered:

• Icecream sized containers are the best for carrying mortar about – you may have to make more quite often but it means the mortar won’t haave dried out by the time you reach the end of it
• Perfect consistency is 4 mugs mortar mix to 1 mug water (with perhaps another 2 tbsp or so of water if needed)
• Wear gloves, the thin latex gloves and change them often (or lose a layer of skin…or 3)
• Diamond shaped trowels are good for mixing
• A small flat head paint scraper is the best nifty tool for getting the mortar into the joints
• A float trowel (large, rectangular) is very handy too, use it as a palette
• A thin piece of dowel is good for pressing the mortar in to deep crevasses in the wall to make sure there are no air bubbles and your mortar is compressed.

Technique

I use the float trowel like a palette. You dump mortar onto it (as much as you need) and then move it level to the course you are repointing and flat against the brickwork.

Then use the small paint scraper to shift the mortar into the cracks until they are full. Even if the mortar falls off the wall, your float trowel should capture most of it (conservation and meaning less clean up). You can work quite quickly this way.

Because the float trowel has a long and a short side, you can shift it around – sometimes deliver mortar off the long side, sometimes off the short side; dependent on the obstacles around you.

There will still be awkward areas (around pipework, behind round hot water heaters and in other tricksy areas where you can’t get the float trowel in), for them I balled up the mortar in my hands and pushed it in, using the scraper to press and level it.

Not a professional but a gifted amateur

All in all, it has taken me about 4 days, over 2 years to do the back wall of the house. But now that I have the knack and am a bit more confident, I reckon I will try and get it finished before Christmas. Ideally I will spend the next couple of  Sundays on this until it at least the back and the front are done but we will see how we go. If I can tick most of this off before it gets too hot to work through the day, that would be awesome.

I calculate it will be another 5/6 days to finish the front (larger area with the U in the house,) and maybe 1/2 days for the side…and then there is the clean up. There is always the clean up…

Advertisement