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Home > DIY How To Projects and Tutorial Guides > Pointing Brickwork – How to Point and Repoint Brickwork and Walls

Pointing Brickwork – How to Point and Repoint Brickwork and Walls

In this DIY guide we take a look at pointing brickwork and take you through the steps involved in how to point brickwork including renewing mortar joints, preparing new mortar for pointing, mixing mortar and matching mortar colours and also explain the different styles of pointing finish that includes weather struck, recessed and flush pointing.

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Pointing and repointing brickwork and stonework can be a very time consuming job and although it may look easy it takes a bit of experience to get the professional finish seen on most jobs. We have outlined the basic process here.

Old brickwork with broken and missing mortar in joints

Old brickwork with broken and missing mortar in joints

Firstly Remove all Loose and Damaged Mortar

Firstly cut out all loose and damaged mortar. You may find that some of the faces of the bricks have been damaged as a result of water getting into the joints. This can be remedied in our replacing bricks project and the science of it understood in our freeze-thaw action in brickwork project. You can see a wall below that has been cut out, cleaned out and then repointed. Cutting out is best done with a plugging chisel or small bolster. Very loose stuff can simply be raked out with a screwdriver or similar. The best tool to clean out the joint is a wire brush.

Rake out old joints to 10mm minimum

Rake out old joints to 10mm minimum

Wire brush loose dust and mortar from joints

Rake out old joints to 10mm minimum

Mixing Mortar for Pointing Brickwork

Mixing up mortar for new joints

Mixing up mortar for new joints

For information on how to mix sand and cement for your new mortar joints see our mortar mixing project.

To make your job a great deal easier, Tarmac have bought out a range of easy mix products which come complete with their own tub for mixing. Take a look at the video below to see one of these new products in action. This pre-mixed mortar comes in 5kg and 10kg re-sealable plastic tubs. A 10kg tub contains enough mortar to lay 12 bricks.

Place on hawk ready for easiest way to repoint

Place on hawk ready for easiest way to repoint

Matching Mortar Colours

Unless you are doing all of the walls anew, it will be necessary to match the mortar you are using to the existing colour. See our project on matching sand and cement mortar.

Filling joints with new mortar

Filling joints with new mortar

Different Styles of Pointing Finish

Fill joints flush with surface, then choose the type of finish of pointing:

"Bucket handle pointing" can be done with metal pointing tool or with a short length of chopped off hosepipe run through the joint. Other types of pointing styles can be seen below.

Flush pointing

Flush pointing Done by cutting off surplus and rubbing over with back of trowel

Weather struck pointing

Weather struck pointing Done by using pointing trowel at an angle

Recessed pointing

Recessed pointing Done by raking out mortar with mortar rake

Why not check out our video section on pointing and watch the films on lime pointing and repointing brick in a wall for a visual demonstration on how this is done.

All project content written and produced by Mike Edwards, founder of DIY Doctor and industry expert in building technology.

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Related Projects That May Help You:
  • Replacing Damaged Bricks – How to Remove a Brick to Replace with a new one or an Air Brick
  • Preparing Brickwork for Painting – Getting External Masonry and Brickwork Ready for Painting
  • Pointing and Repointing a Patio – The Best Way to Repoint a Patio Using a Dry Mix
  • How to Mix Mortar for a Variety of Jobs Including Building Walls, Pointing and Many Others – Also Features a Handy Table of Mixes for Making Different Types of Mortar
  • How to Fix Cracks in Walls by Stitching Mortar Joints
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