Re-pointing cost estimation?

[bigandclever]

I appreciate this is a 'how long is a piece of string?' question, but....

Broadly, is there a guide-price for re-pointing brickwork, costed per square metre? I've seen various places put it at about £30 psm, but I'm coming from a position of complete ignorance.

Any advice welcome (unless you're that telly brickie on right now, who seems to have a stuck key on his calculator/random number generator).

[FlossyThePig]

How old is the property and what kind of mortar is used at the moment?

Cement based mortar can cause no end of damage on older property. Some jobbing builders don't understand older methods and materials.

[m3jappa]

I'm not too sure on actual costs but i would imagine that the per sq m cost could differ hugely. I would guess that the larger the area gets the cheaper it is per sqm.

A whole house (lets say a 4 bed detached) is one hell of an area if you were to work it out and is a good job for someone, but then if you have a little bit of wall on an extension it would i'm guessing work out dearer per sq m.

Either way it has to be the sttest job on the planet to undertake, but can make quite an average tatty house look really nice if done well.

[bigandclever]

Well, let's put it this way... the quotes are coming in at over £20k. Which strikes me as a LOT. Not seen the itemised breakdown yet but scaffolding is about £3.5k of that.

[dave_s13]

20k!!

Is right to assume, as mentioned above, that nobody really wants to undertake re-pointing work, even if they are struggling to get work in?

That may be why the quote is so high.

[Mr GrimNasty]

It's also not something you want to trust to any random builder. It can destroy the look and value of your house if done badly, and it can cause problems with damp and brick spalling if the wrong materials are used.

[Gareth79]

My house needs a few sqm repairing and I was looking around and it seems that brickies hate doing it and like to at least get a labourer in to do the raking/prep. The prices I've seen mentioned online vary from £15-25 per sqm.

A neighbour did the front of their house (using some of their staff) and they used a portable platform thing, no scaffolding required.

[GreenDog]

One of the yard walls at the rear of our house is in need of repointing but I was thinking that it might be easier and look better to have it rendered and then painted. I presume if I went did this the wall wouldn't need to be pointed first ? Also would it be less expensinve than pointing the wall ?

Edited by GreenDog on Friday 25th February 13:45

[swiftpete]

How big is your house? It may sound crazy and it might take you a few weekends but have you thought of doing it yourself? It isn't actually difficult to do, it's just time consuming and boring, which is why no one really likes doing it.

[B17NNS]

It is a loathsome job but a friend of mine loves doing it.

iPod on, switch off brain. He'll happily repoint all day long.

http://www.whatprice.co.uk/prices/building/repoint...

Edited by B17NNS on Friday 25th February 19:03

[Slagathore]

B17NNS said:

It is a loathsome job but a friend of mine loves doing it.

iPod on, switch off brain. He'll happily repoint all day long.

I used to love pointing when I had to do it. Done most of the pointing on a barn conversion we done. It's a lot better pointing random stone walling, though. I've done a bit repointing brickwork and that is really boring, but it's so easy, and you can do so much, the day just flies by.

I guess it depends on the size of the house and the mortar that already in the joints.

Repointing the barn was easy in some places, as think the mortar was lime based. There were areas that had been patched in and the builder had used a really strong cement based mortar. It made raking out the joints really hard, so that might be reflected in the price you already have.

That's the only really time consuming part - the raking out. It makes sense to have scaffolding, just for the convenience mainly, whoever takes the job on will not want to be coming down every 10 mins to move a tower scaffold.