You wouldn’t think it but a lot of thought goes into the
little bits of mortar between the bricks. What colour to use (grey, grey with
yellow, dark grey) and even what style of pointing (weather torn, recessed, flush, a little bit proud, a
lot proud) .. Luckily sloppy smearing wasn’t one of the options we had to consider.
As this was the first pointing decision Care and I had to
make we, as expected, had no clue. It all comes down to taste. Michael was nice
enough to run some test lines in different shades and styles. One was too dark,
one was too light.
The weather torn (my choice) eventually won the style
competition. We went with a more yellow-grey look to complement the red in the
bricks. So once decided (finally), on
went the pointing.
As could be expected given the previous few days, the guys
swarmed on it like an army of bees and accomplished the bulk of it in a single day.
Which, by the way, was a Saturday. They even managed to re-rendered the window sills. All while we enjoyed a picnic in the rain
(gotta love London). Yes, Scott the Builder was allowed to take a day off.
Lots of work to get here but as you can see from the final product, it was worth all the effort.
