Repointing Victorian brickwork, stone carving and more, London home

Restored Victorian facade, with new lime pointing

Pictured: London Stonemasonry restored the front of this Victorian house on Brodrick Road, Wandsworth Common SW17

London Stonemasonry repointed a Victorian house on Brodrick Road, Wandsworth Common SW17, raking out the cement pointing and replacing it with lime mortar, pinning cracked stone to the bay parapet and front wall, carving a new letter-carved pier cap and porch column base and more.

The homeowners contacted London Stonemasonry because they wanted to refresh the facade of this beautiful Victorian house.

Brodrick Road sits in the Wandsworth Common Conservation Area, a street of individually styled Victorian houses built between 1850 and 1920 by a number of builders, singly, in pairs and in short terraces, in what the council’s appraisal calls “a village on the common”. This house is typical of the best of them: three storeys of yellow stock brick with a pierced quatrefoil parapet over the ground-floor bay, a dentil cornice, bands of dogtooth brick and a shared round-arched porch with carved foliate capitals.

A before and after image: The new bespoke stone pier cap

Pier cap before restorationStone cap, after restoration, with carved name

Pictured: The old cracked gate pier cap and the new letter-carved Thorncross cap by London Stonemasonry

The challenge: Cement pointing on solid wall Victorian brickwork

The property had been previously repointed in cement-based mortar, so one of the main parts of the project was to remove this and replace it in lime mortar.

With solid wall Victorian-era construction, lime mortar would have been used to lay the bricks and should also be used when repointing. Lime lets the wall breathe. Using cement can trap moisture in the brickwork and result in damp issues.

The stonework needed attention as well. There was cracked stone to the bay parapet wall and to the copings of the front wall, and the letter-carved pier cap on the gate and the base of the porch column had worn to the point where new ones had to be carved. Left alone, trapped moisture keeps working at the bricks and stone of a solid wall from the inside, and cracked copings and parapet stone let more water in every winter.

Cracked cement pointing in brick courses between two stone copings

Pictured: Cracked cement pointing in the brick courses between two stone copings on the front wall, before London Stonemasonry raked it out

Vertical crack through a front garden wall coping beneath a hedge

Pictured: A vertical crack through the front garden wall coping, one of the cracked stones pinned and restored by London Stonemasonry

Our solution: Lime mortar repointing, pinned stone repairs and newly carved stonework

We agreed costs for the restoration and redecoration of the stonework, along with templating and replacing the letter-carved pier cap and the mullion base to the porch. Scaffolding was erected and work began with the removal and replacement of the pointing, followed by pinning and restoring some cracked stone to the bay parapet wall and the copings to the front wall.

Once all repairs were carried out we decorated in Keim breathable masonry paint, which we use on lime-pointed solid walls for the same reason the brickwork needed lime mortar. We had templated the pier cap and the porch column base, and once carved they were installed as the last items, followed by decorating them in Keim paint.

Stainless steel threaded bar set into a cut slot across a crack in a stone coping

Pictured: A stainless steel threaded bar bedded across a crack in the parapet stone, part of the pinning and restoration by London Stonemasonry

Result: A breathable facade, and the house name back on the gate

The project took four weeks to complete and the owners were delighted with the result.

The front of the house now has lime mortar joints that let the solid brickwork release moisture instead of trapping it, and a Keim finish that breathes with the wall.

The cracked stone on the bay parapet and the front wall copings are pinned and restored. The sills and bay are repaired and repainted, and the replacement bricks sit in the Flemish bond face.

At the gate, the new pier cap carries the house name, Thorncross, cut into the stone, and under the porch the column stands on a crisp new carved base.

Before the restorationRestored Victorian facade

Pictured: The front of the house before and after lime repointing, pinned stone repairs and Keim breathable paint, by London Stonemasonry

Freshly painted porch columns with a new carved base

Pictured: The new carved porch column base in place beside the front door, decorated in Keim paint by London Stonemasonry

Contact us: Restore and repoint your Victorian home

London Stonemasonry is one of London’s leading specialists in lime repointing and carved stone repairs to Victorian houses.

We work on Victorian terraces across London, from bay windows to porches, pier caps and parapets.

If your Victorian house has cement pointing, cracked stone or a worn pier cap, contact us for an itemised costed survey.

You can also read more about our brick and facade restoration service.

Example review: Our facade work is highly recommended

N.L.N., a London homeowner, left this review of our work on the front of their house:

“London Stonemasonry are the best! They renovated the front of our house and it looks great – all brick and stone cleaned, repointed and repaired, with some replacements. Thanks Will and Adam.”

On a similar lime repointing job on Honeywell Road in Clapham SW11, the client was so pleased with the property’s new look that they asked us to repoint the front wall in the matching lime mortar mix and redecorate the railings too.

Read more reviews from our clients.

Frequently asked, and related, questions about this project

Because a Victorian house like this one is built of solid wall brickwork laid in lime mortar, and the wall manages moisture by letting it out through the joints.

Lime mortar is softer and more permeable than the brick, so it weathers first and protects the brick.

Cement is harder and less permeable, so moisture is trapped behind it and shows up as damp inside and decaying brick and stone outside.

 

Yes. On Brodrick Road we raked out the cement pointing across the front of the house and repointed in NHL 3.5 natural hydraulic lime mortar, working from a scaffold over four weeks alongside the stone repairs.

We did the same on a Victorian house on Lavender Sweep in Clapham, where cement pointing and non-breathable paint had caused damp inside. The cement has to come out without damaging the brick edges, and any bricks that have failed are replaced at the same time.

It depends on the size of the elevation, how much cement has to be raked out, how many bricks need replacing, whether stone repairs are needed at the same time, and the scaffold.

That is why we start with a visit and an itemised costed survey, as we did on Brodrick Road, so the homeowners could see the price of each part of the work before agreeing it.

Contact us for a survey of your own house.

Victorian houses often have solid walls – and need to let moisture out. A film-forming masonry paint seals moisture in.

On Brodrick Road we decorated the restored stonework in Keim mineral paint, which bonds to the masonry rather than sitting on it as a film, and lets water vapour pass.

We used the same finish on a stucco facade on Queensbridge Road in Hackney.

Lime pointing is designed to be the part of the wall that weathers, slowly, so that the brick does not. Correctly specified and applied, as with the NHL 3.5 lime mortar on Brodrick Road, it needs no attention until the joints have weathered back noticeably or become loose, which on a well-kept house takes a very long time. When that day comes it can be renewed, which is far easier than repairing bricks damaged by cement.

Yes. On Brodrick Road the old gate pier cap was cracked and flaking, with the house name, Thorncross, almost lost under layers of paint. We templated it, carved a new cap with Thorncross letter-cut into it, and installed it as one of the last items of the job before decorating it in Keim paint.

The same templating and carving gave the porch column its new base.

See also

Project summary

Facade restoration, including lime repointing and carved stone repairs to a Victorian house on Brodrick Road, Wandsworth Common SW17. Cement pointing raked out and replaced with lime mortar, a new letter-carved pier cap and porch column base and more.

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