How do I know if a garden wall needs repointing?
The pointing of our brick front garden wall (about 4.5m long, 5 bricks high) is looking worse for wear, but still seem fairly solid. How do I know if it needs repointing? Is it just is the bricks start to get loose? Thanks :-)
Advice from 10 local tradespeople
Hi you would have cracks and missing parts of mortar if. It needs repointing regards bm property maintenance
Repointing isn't so much for structure purposes, rather to please the eye. The mortar you can't see is the important part. When the mortar starts to crumble and reseed is when potential weakness occurs
If its cosmetic and still solid you probably could get away with it, if your startimg to see mortar chipping away from the joints its advisable to get it repointed
Hello iv just seen your question it can mainly be when the bricks or coping stones become loose or when it starts to flake off 10mil or further in to the brickwork I would be more than willing to come take a look for you
The best solution would be to see the wall live, because no picture will determine the condition of the mortar . Thank you :) Damian repointing
Is the mortar pointing in good condition? If the hard surface layer can be picked out from the joint, or if the mortar can easily be scraped out with, say, a door key, then this is a good indication that the wall may need repointing.
I would look at the wall overall if the bricks are loose I would take all the defective wall down and rebuild. If it just wanted grinding out to a good depth then repoint to make good
If repointing is out or crumbling then needs repointing
The purpose of the pointing is to protect the masonry from the elements, if the bricks have become loose it means that the mortar bed on which the bricks were layed upon has diminished probably due to moisture ie lack of pointing and/or an incorrect mortar mix.
Cracks round the brickwork or mortar falling out
