Mortar falling out
from between
your bricks?

Pointing is the
weather skin.

The mortar between the bricks is not holding the wall up. On a traditional solid wall the bricks carry the load and the mortar does something different: it takes the movement, and it lets the wall breathe out any water that gets in. Pointing is a sacrificial layer. It is meant to decay before the brick does, and it is meant to be replaced.

When it has gone past its life the joints go soft, sandy and hollow. Water runs into the gap instead of over the face, sits in the wall, and starts working on the brick behind. In a London winter that water freezes, expands, and takes the face off the brick. Once the brick face has blown, repointing no longer fixes it and you are into cutting out and replacing individual bricks, which costs considerably more.

So the timing matters. Repointing a wall while the joints are eroded but the bricks are sound is routine maintenance. Leaving it two more winters can turn it into brick replacement.

Raked back,
not skimmed over.

The joints are raked out to at least twice the height of the joint, so the new mortar has enough depth to key in and hold. Anything shallower is a skim, and a skim will fall out within a few winters because there is nothing for it to grip.

On older or softer brickwork that raking is done with hand tools. Angle grinders are quick and they are how most of the widened, chipped, ragged joints in London happened: the disc is wider than the joint and it takes the arris off the brick either side. Once that edge is gone it does not come back.

The wall is then dampened down, the mortar is pressed in in layers rather than one thick fill, and the finish is matched to what is already there rather than whatever the mason prefers. On an exposed elevation the mortar is protected while it cures, because lime that dries too fast or freezes before it has set does not gain its strength.

Access is usually the real cost driver rather than the pointing itself. If the elevation needs a scaffold, it is worth doing the chimney, the gutters, the fascia and the roof edge in the same visit rather than paying for the same scaffold three times in three years.

What your report
probably said.

Survey reports rarely use the word repointing on its own. They tend to describe the condition and leave you to work out what it means. Phrases that all point at the same job include mortar joints are soft and eroded, pointing has weathered back, open joints noted to the flank elevation, and previous repointing in a cement rich mortar.

If the report also mentions spalled or blown brick faces, that is the stage after erosion and it means some brick replacement will sit alongside the pointing. If it mentions repointing around window junctions specifically, that is usually about water getting in at the frame rather than the whole elevation.

Send us the paragraph. We will tell you whether it is a full elevation, a patch, or something that can reasonably be watched for another year.