Urgent pointing question

[AMc]

I have some concrete patching and some blown bricks on the rear section of my house. As part of a bigger refurbishment job my builders are raking out the concrete ready for repointing in lime. There are patches all over the wall, but mostly in the bottom metre or so.
The builders want to rake out the whole 2 storey wall, even where the lime looks good to my untrained eye, so it looks the same.

They're not doing the actual lime pointing as we're threatened with frost and snow at the end of the week. They really want an answer this morning once they've got the scaffolding up.

Should I stop them from removing good lime to maintain an aged appearance or should I get the whole wall repointed as the existing mortar isn't designed to last forever?

 

[Lime]

New lime pointing can look very white.
It is dependent on what the old mortar looks like (condition, colour, mix, angle of strike etc).
If you want a consistent look I'd do the lot.
For me it would depend on just how much there was to redo.
10% - just infill.
40% - renew.

 

[AMc]

10% - just infill.
40% - renew.

That's interesting. I think they've already cut out about 40% in the bottom of the wall where the concrete was. I think I need to go and have a long hard look at the wall and see how much patching they need to deal with anyway.

Is the lifespan of lime mortar indefinite or will it all need to be done in the end?

 

[skier-hughes]

It'll need to be done in the end, but is that end next year or 40 years. I'm working on leave the good repair the bad, as don't mend what aint broke is a got motto to work to.

 

[Flyfisher]

How quickly might the new pointing 'weather' so that it matches the existing pointing - or will the difference always be visible?

 

[AMc]

one of the more senior guys has agreed with me that we'll work on the first couple of metres and patch the rest. It would all be a bit easier if I spoke Polish or at least Russian. They have done some cracking work but the language barrier is quite high! They can't fathom why I don't want to make everything look brand new!

 

[Nemesis]

It's actually sound conservation to patch, leave the decent stuff as is.

All adds to the charm etc...

Yes well. Conservation in some countries seems to involve demolition and rebuilding in replica.

http://www.maps-moscow.com/?chapter_id=232

 

[AMc]

Thanks for your help everyone, you've confirmed what I thought was the right direction.