You may imagine brick repointing to be a time-consuming, expensive process, and one that can’t be justified simply by making your property more appealing. Yet the health of your brick mortar is about more than just appearance – here we cover five benefits of brick repointing that you may not have even of thought of.

1. Repointing Will Help Ensure Structural Integrity
Proper maintenance of your brickwork helps to ensure the structural integrity of your property – should you notice falling mortar, growing cracks or decaying joints, you almost certainly need to address them immediately. Repointing repairs these problems, ensuring that strength and stability is redeemed.

2. Your Home Will Be Protected From the Weather
Where mortar becomes compromised, the seal that protects your property can fail; should this happen, water can begin to seep into the bricks, potentially leading to damp issues. Where this is the case a professional repointer will repair the damp proof layer, and complete the job with fresh mortar that waterproofs your property once more.

3. The Aesthetics of Your Property Will Be Improved
Crumbling mortar impacts on the overall appearance of a property, and the stains that brickwork can suffer over the years can further degrade the overall look of a home. Repointing services can be complemented with stain removal services which, together, make for a significant makeover and improvement in appearance. Explore our brickwork repointing and restoration gallery to appreciate just how different a property can look following our services.

4. The Value of Your Home May Rise
The value of a property is significantly impacted by the amount of maintenance that potential home buyers consider is needed. Add to this the potential repair bills that a home buyer would rather avoid, and repointing makes solid sense for the average vendor.

5. The Regular Maintenance Your Property Will Be Reduced
Some homeowners are tempted to repair brickwork as they go – covering small sections one area at a time. This approach generally leads to diminished wall strength, and brickwork that has uneven weak points. It can also produce a somewhat haphazard appearance, with workmanship that lacks the clean, uniform affect when repointing and restoration is undertaken on the entire property.

London Repointing & Restoration are a team of craftsmen who carefully restore and repair damaged and worn stonework – should you wish to talk about whether repointing would be right for your property, speak with our helpful team on 02083068233, or send us a message.

Brickwork problems are notoriously difficult to spot with the layman’s eye alone. Here we provide our professional input as to how you can spot any brickwork issues, and understand what may be needed in order to address them.

The importance of maintaining your brickwork

Let us first begin with why brickwork problems are so important to spot quickly. When bricks aren’t well maintained, serious problems can rapidly progress, as the bricks allow for moisture and air to access the interior walls of your property. This can lead to a wide variety of issues, from structural instability to costly damage, both of which can compromise the safety of the building. To this end you should look out for: missing mortar; old mortar; mortar joints that protrude outwards and brickwork that sags, bulges or bows.

Mortar condition

Old mortar

Mortar is likely one of the easiest elements of brickwork to inspect; simply run your finger across the mortar surface – where there is a sand like substance that comes off, or where the mortar falls away, the mortar will need to be replaced.

Missing mortar

Where you spot mortar that has fallen away from the brickwork you should call a professional company such as ourselves immediately. Once on-site, a qualified expert will thoroughly inspect the brickwork, documenting the issues in images and later inspecting them closer up on a computer.

Mortar joints that protrude

Protruding mortar joints can be identified by a quick visual inspection – look out for joints that don’t align with one another or any areas where there is protrusion, both of which could soon lead to joints that fall out.

Walls that are bowing or sagging

To identify a wall that sags or bows, you should look vertically up the wall. A further symptom are tiny cracks that can begin to form around doors and windows, which may run for several bricks. It’s worth noting that these may be different to stress cracks, which are caused when windows are installed. These happen due to the lintel that supports the brickwork above it bearing down on the bricks below. Such bricks could deteriorate to such a point that the entire structure is no longer able to provide enough support. You could also experience stress cracks where there has been settling in the foundation walls – this is typically due to water runoff being incorrectly managed.

When a wall bows, the root cause is typically one of three things:

– Substandard brickwork, involving the improper arrangement of bricks

– Inadequate tuckpointing, which goes on to cause the brickwork to weaken

– Broken or missing wall ties (these can also be identified where there are horizontal cracks or bulges in the brickwork)

Suspect that your property is suffering from brickwork issues? Call the team at London Repointing and Restoration. We can provide impartial advice, free from obligation. Call us on 0208 306 8233 or email us via info@londonrepointingandrestorationltd.co.uk and we’ll be right back in touch.

There’s a lot of terminology that we use in our day to day jobs, and we understand that this jargon can confuse even the most informed of laymen. Here we take a look at one such term – ‘quoins’, explaining what they are and why they matter to you.

What are quoins?

By the official dictionary definition, a quoin is described as: “an external angle of a wall or building”, however in the world of masonry, this word actually describes the outer corner of a building. In everyday language, you’d likely call them a cornerstone.

Quoins may also serve for aesthetic purposes (period homes featuring notably decorative quoins include Edwardian and Victorian homes). And if you wish to know a little history, the term quoin, actually began as another way to spell ‘coin’, which then went on to be associated with words such as ‘cornerstone’ and ‘wedge’.

Why you should care about quoins

You’ve probably used the term ‘cornerstone’ to describe something of inherent strength and importance: “he was a cornerstone of the community”. This example is pretty relevant here, as quoins are critical to the structural integrity of a building, when they begin to deteriorate, the surrounding brickwork can become affected and the safety of a building can become compromised.

Concerned about your quoins or any other element of your brickwork? At London Repointing and Restoration, we come with an exceptional track record (check our previous customers’ reviews on Checkatrade.com). With a 9.70 rating out of 10, you may then want to get in touch. Call us on 0208 306 8233 or email us via info@londonrepointingandrestorationltd.co.uk.

The Client

City living can be decidedly short on lush, green expansive spaces – it’s then not surprising that Londoners go to pain staking lengths to maximise the outdoor space that they do have.

It’s fair to say that we’ve met many clients who’ve sometimes requested projects that were out of the ordinary – nevertheless I’d soon meet one client who approached us with something we’d never come across before – the challenge of repointing a beautiful Victorian terrace… that would soon overlook Camberwell’s only back garden jungle.

The Brief

The urban jungle project ran alongside extensive restoration to the property – both internally and externally; floors were removed, a basement was created and period features were meretriciously restored.

Owner Greg Smith approached London Repointing and Restoration to repoint the external walls of his property – a project we took on with fascination as to just what had been achieved by the point of our involvement. The repointing involved a team of 3 men for a total of 5 weeks and today the project, and London Repointing and Restoration, have been mentioned in an article in the Evening Standard.

The Results

Based in Camberwell, SE5, the client’s gracious Victorian Terrace served as an unlikely place for such a back garden. And as you can see for yourself – the results are breath-taking, going to show that client creativity and fortitude, can create something truly amazing. We’re proud to have worked alongside other contractors for this project, such as architects, builders and even fireplace specialists. Now, owner Greg says that he’s opened up his garden for the National Garden Scheme, in a bid to raise money for charity. And it seems that passers-by are equally as impressed (if perhaps, a little too curious)…

“People come to visit the garden but I found one couple having a look round inside, even though they’re not supposed to.”

Read the full story on Home&Property

Whether repointing a Victorian Terrace beside a jungle or formal garden, we consistently aim for, and achieve, outstanding results. Feel free to get in touch with us – London Repointing and Restoration – You can call us on 0208 306 8233 or email us on info@londonrepointingandrestorationltd.co.uk.