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Lime pointing in Belfast
Flush and brush lime mortar for older brick and stone. The right mix for most Belfast terraces and Glengormley period houses.
Why lime on a Belfast wall
A lot of the brick around the city and Newtownabbey is older than people think. Solid walls, no cavity, soft red clay that was never meant to be locked in with hard cement. Lime lets that wall take in a bit of moisture and give it back out again. Cement pointing on the same brick traps water, then the face of the brick blows in a frost.
If the original joints were lime — and on a terrace or 1930s semi they usually were — we put lime back. Not because it is fashionable. Because the wall already told us what it needs.
Flush and brush finish
We rake the failed joints out to a proper depth, not a smear over the top. Fresh lime is packed in, struck off flush with the brick, then brushed so the joint has a sandy, open face. That is the finish you see on decent conservation work, and it sits quietly on the wall instead of looking like a new grid.
Sand and colour are matched to the existing mortar as far as the wall allows. You will not get a bright white stripe round every brick.
How the job runs
Boards go down first. Old mortar is bagged as we go. Lime is mixed to the wall, not to whatever is cheapest that morning. We protect fresh joints from hard rain and from frost, and we do not pack a house into a two-day slot if the mortar needs longer to go off.
Typical lime jobs here are street elevations in Belfast, gable walls in Glengormley, and stone that has been pointed in cement and started to hold damp. If cement has to come out first, that is in the quote.
RT Pointing · 62 Ballyduff Road, Glengormley, Newtownabbey BT36 6PB · 07873 673139