Repointing & Brick Repair in Dorset

Repointing replaces the failed mortar in the joints of a wall, and done correctly it adds decades to the life of the brickwork. Done badly – or in the wrong mortar – it actively destroys the wall it was meant to save.

We repoint across Poole, Bournemouth and Dorset in both cement and lime mortars, matching the original joint profile and mortar colour, and we will always tell you if your wall does not actually need doing.

The cement mortar problem

A great deal of the damaged brickwork we are called to in Dorset was pointed in hard cement mortar at some point in the last fifty years. Cement is stronger than a soft handmade Victorian brick. Moisture that used to evaporate harmlessly through the soft joint now has nowhere to go, so it leaves through the brick face instead – and when it freezes, it takes the face of the brick with it.

The fix is to rake out the cement and repoint in a lime mortar appropriate to the wall. It is slower work and it is worth every hour.

Angle grinders

We rake joints out by hand or with a properly guided tool. Running an angle grinder along a joint is fast, cheap, and widens the joint permanently while cutting into the brick arrises. If a quote you have had is unusually cheap, this is very often why.