Lime pointing quotes

[discobarry]

Hello all,

I have been trying to get quotes for lime pointing the whole of our house which is a small ish 3 bed farmers cottage. We had the first quote of a guy i really liked who was more than willing to talk about all aspects of the job and he was enthusiastic but his quote seemed to be nearer 5k. The second quote we got was off a guy who has a good website with examples off there work on, but i wasn't as keen on him as the other. As odd as it sounds i'm quite a good judge of character and the first guy i really preferred. The probably being the second quote was shy of 2k for all the works done in natural hydraulic lime all raked out with scaffolding the same as the first.

I don't get the difference, is 5k nearer the mark or is 2k? And should i trust my instincts? (even though my accountant wife trusts numbers more )

 

[Bathman]

Have to say £5k seems high compared to when I got my house re-pointed, would say £2k seems a more sensible price - I wouldn't really have thought there can't be much you can do different when it comes to doing re-pointing?

Maybe you could ask them both to repoint a little area round the back (and pay them of course) and see what the difference is between them?

 

[discobarry]

Good idea! they are so busy though i doubt it will happen. I need more quotes really!

 

[TheForge]

Where are you based? How many square meters are being repointed? What is the current pointing? How easily will it come out? All that will affect the cost and without that info it's very difficult to assess what would be a realistic cost. 3 bed houses can vary drastically in size! Are you matching an existing mortar or are both quoting like for like for a basic sand/NHL mix?

 

[middi]

To rake out and repoint in lime mortar a "smallish" cottage should not take longer than 3 weeks max.
The materials required are quite minimal as is the removal of any raked out mortar.
If a chap wants to earn £600 per 5 days work plus a couple of hundred quid of materials and another couple of hundred to sustain his business plus " a bit" of unforseen extra, the cost should be about £2,300.

If someone would want to charge you £3, 300 he/she would employ the chap/chapesse that wants to earn £ 600 for 5 days work and make himself/herself a £1000 plus for their business.

If someone wants to charge you in excess of £4,000 as far as I am concerned they are taking the P..s

Middi

 

[88v8]

Can't recall where you are.
These chaps know their stuff and are willing to travel.
http://www.brownstoneconstruction.co.uk/aboutus.html

Ivor

 

[billybuntus]

If your anywhere near Durham I have a team about to start pointing (already hacked out by them) on Saturday. Very competitive.

 

[JoceAndChris]

From bitter experience I would now never employ an independent tradesmen who came without the company van, the office, managed by someone with a degree and good communication skills, the impressive website, and the thick letter headed stationery. A company like Boss or Skillingtons hand pick skilful workers, train them, manage their schedule and make sure jobs get finished off. When you use a single independent chap, or someone who occasionally uses his mate to help him out on larger jobs, you are at the mercy of whether they want to finish the job, whether they've had a better offer in the meantime, whether they really have the skill and knowledge to make a nice job of it. We've had our fingers burned too many times and often by very youthful charming tradesmen who talked an excellent job. What happens is they come up against a problem they can't solve and they run away, or they have a better offer and run away, or they have a personal problem that means they have to abort. Then you're left totally in the lurch with a half done job, or you're left before that, having accepted their quotation and just waiting and waiting for them to turn up. It's maddening. We've now said anything we can do ourselves, we will, and anything really big use only the best, often rather expensive, company.

I would imagine that the 2 grand quoter would never turn up!

 

[a twig]

A good guide to re-pointing costs is £30-40 per square metre (obviously region dependant). Work that out for your property and it should tell you which quote is the more accurate.

 

[jackpoint]

Our fellas said thirty to forty psm too.

On the subject these turned up today...

From https://www.facebook.com/thorpeindustries?sk=info via fleabay - search cutlas mortar saw or similar for reciprocating saw.

They are actually quite good - far less dust than a grinder if a bit of a handful
Next big job for me may/will be repointing the front of the house - it's a bit daunting but very therapeutic :lol:

 

[masochists-r-us]

I agree with Bathman. I wouldn't consider committing to a project such as the entire re-pointing of your house without having seen evidence of the person's work for myself. We also try and do as much as we can, but when I bring someone new in, I generally give them something small so I can get to see their character, capability and work ethic. If I don't like what I see,we don't ask them back. If you ask the person you're interested in to come and point up a square metre first,you can assess the quality of their work,their productivity and whether you are happy for them to work on your house. If all's well you should be able to calculate what the overall cost ought to be although I suspect Middi and others are right. And, if the person won't agree to work with you on that basis, there's a reason so walk away and find someone who will. We work with one man bands all the time as we don't have the resources to use 'big companies'.There are some amazing people out there who work hard and well and charge sensible rates, but there are an awful lot of sharks too so you need to be cautious and discerning and unafraid to call the shots. Remember it's your house, your money.

 

[Zebra]

I have no idea about pointing costs, but my experience has been the complete opposite of Joceand Chris', in that I have employed young, keen, self-employed animals to do things here (a young antelope for roof, a couple of hyenas to do the rendering) and they were all excellent. That said, I liked them, they weren't at all flashy or sales-y. Perhaps I was just lucky.

 

[billybuntus]

From bitter experience I would now never employ an independent tradesmen who came without the company van, the office, managed by someone with a degree and good communication skills, the impressive website, and the thick letter headed stationery. A company like Boss or Skillingtons hand pick skilful workers, train them, manage their schedule and make sure jobs get finished off. When you use a single independent chap, or someone who occasionally uses his mate to help him out on larger jobs, you are at the mercy of whether they want to finish the job, whether they've had a better offer in the meantime, whether they really have the skill and knowledge to make a nice job of it. We've had our fingers burned too many times and often by very youthful charming tradesmen who talked an excellent job. What happens is they come up against a problem they can't solve and they run away, or they have a better offer and run away, or they have a personal problem that means they have to abort. Then you're left totally in the lurch with a half done job, or you're left before that, having accepted their quotation and just waiting and waiting for them to turn up. It's maddening. We've now said anything we can do ourselves, we will, and anything really big use only the best, often rather expensive, company.

I would imagine that the 2 grand quoter would never turn up!

I agree in principal if you have money to burn by employing very well established tradespeople if you don't have the ability to spot someone clearly making a bodge job or even doing something half hearted.

I employ a guy who's extremely passionate about his work. He's not hunting for money and is happy to earn a fair wage for doing an excellent honest job.
Prior to him turning up I found the well established local tradesmen complete with website with a ton of photos of previous work, stickered up van etc etc talked a lot , promised the world and after 40 minutes of telling me how brilliant his work is couldn't even be bothered to get back to me with a quote. He hadn't half a clue in my opinion and had the gift of the gab with no real foundation.

There are a few decent tradesman out there who don't work for firms. Spend some time and find a committed sole who likes his work and doesn't want to drive around in a range rover while his other half spends all of his earning on holidays.

My 2p.

 

[JoceAndChris]

To be fair this house is extremely difficult and utterly individual, and the things I ask people to do - they're unlikely to have ever been asked to do it.

 

[plasticpigeon]

I've got a bog standard early 20th century terrace, and I haven't found a tradesperson worth their salt (apart from a gas fitter).

 

[discobarry]

Thanks for all the replies, hopefully this is ok to say but the company we are interested in doing the work are PAR Masonry. I am based near Halifax, West Yorkshire.

http://www.parmasonry.co.uk

 

[JoceAndChris]

They look like they know what they're about. A good sign that they've worked on G1 buildings.

 

[discobarry]

Yeah they do have a lot of good work listed don't they. We will be going with these guys as there quote seems the most sensible.

 

[discobarry]

Hello all,

The men have started, so far i'm not overly happy.

The first day i heard more chisels than diamond bit grinders whereas the second day i heard more diamond bit grinders.

They seem to have cut the stone in some places unless all i'm seeing if the cut through the cement.

The sample we had on our wall for colour looks just about right, it is nosterfield they are going to be using, does nosterfield have grit in? That something i'm confused about as he said a few times the nosterfield is the grit, i thought it was the sand? I doubted for a moment they even used lime, but i got a bit from the edge of the sample and it fizzed in vinegar.

I'm going to keep at them and make sure they chisel it out in as slow a way as possible.

What are others experiences with lime pointers?

 

[plasticpigeon]

It is horrible to loose confidence in people working on your home. In my case the builders firm used contract workmen who didn't have a clue, but to be honest i don't think the main man had a clue either. Maybe you could find out if the guys are employees or contractors. I would sya keep an eye on them, and if they really mess up, don't feel bad about sacking them, I wish i had done that with my builders, but out of a sense of duty to them and my family I didn't, but that was the wrong decision.