Pointing Masterclass
Pointing Masterclass
It’s an early start today as we need to make the most of the weather and the front of the building being in the shade until after lunch when the sun comes round. I’m already there with the generator out front and the scaffolding tower broken into two halves so we can move it around wherever we need it.
We’ve had a delivery of a few bulk bags of waddy-fell sand, nought-to-dust gravel and loads of cement ready for Donald to mix. The wall is still a bit damp from yesterdays jet washing so we only need to moisten a few areas which Donald points out haven’t been picked out properly yet. This is my first time working with Pete, one of the fellas working for Donald and between the three of us, the mortar mix goes on quite quickly really but I can’t help notice Donald is out-pacing me three-to-one and is rocketing across the wall. There have been a few times on this build where my DIY-speed seems to look very amateurish compared to the professional version so as I splash and daub my way across the wall trying to keep up, more and more of the mix ends up by my feet! I keep getting pulled up by Donald for not putting enough on (I’m sure most clients don’t get this much stick from their builder!) as the whole process to me seems counterintuitive compared to pointing brickwork. Instead of slow, methodical lines, speed and volume are the order of the day and it takes me a while to get my head around it. Looking at us throwing mortar at the wall, you’d be excused for thinking it’s quite wasteful but the gaps between stones and the sheer volume of mix needed to point the wall before it starts to harden is quite something really and speed, not precision is key.
That said, neither Donald nor Pete seem to have anything like as much mortar by their feet as me, so I probably need to sort out my aim too!
We’re at it for a good few hours though and as we get to the other end, we check where we started and it looks like it hasn’t quite started to go off yet which can mean only one thing. Lunch!
Me and Pete take the time to have a bit of food and a chat while Donald heads off to check on the progress of another job leaving us to it returning later when we’re brushing off.
We’re using a local process which is to wait for the mortar to harden, brush it off exposing only the best stone and then as it hardens further go over it again with a fence brush to bring out the flecks of small stone in the mix. It’s apparently something which the conservationists will be looking for but which we don’t need to replicate on the inside. The mortar seems to be going off faster in some parts than others so we keep moving quickly over the whole wall until it’s done and I can start the clean up.
For my first foray into traditional stone pointing, I think it’s gone really well and I’m looking forward to seeing how it dries.
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