Brick Repointing — Paddington
A Victorian terrace in Paddington with failed brick pointing and rising damp. Case study: full raking out, lime mortar repointing, and damp-course remediation without disturbing the facade.
What was wrong when we arrived
A Victorian terrace in Paddington had pointing that had failed in long runs across the front and side elevations. The original lime mortar had been over-painted at some point and the paint was trapping moisture in the wall.
Rising damp had become visible at the base of the front wall. The skirting boards inside the front room were starting to rot.
The owner had been told by a rendering company that the answer was to render the whole facade. They did not want that — the brick face was the reason they bought the house.
How we fixed it
We raked out all the failed pointing by hand — no angle grinders. The depth was consistent at about 25mm, which is the right depth for a lime mortar joint to key properly.
The over-paint was removed with a poultice, not a pressure washer. Pressure washing drives water into the wall and damages the arrises on the bricks.
New pointing was done in three coats of lime putty mortar, hand-mixed on site with crushed Sydney sandstone aggregate to match the original colour.
The rising damp was a separate problem but related — the original damp course had been bridged by a garden bed built up against the front wall. We removed the garden bed, exposed the original slate damp course, and re-laid the garden bed 200mm below the damp course level with a gravel separator.
What the client got
The facade is weathertight and the brick face is clean. The owner has reported no further damp issues inside.
The pointing has cured paler and harder over the year since — exactly what lime mortar is supposed to do.
Total cost was about a third of the render quote. The brick face was preserved.
Questions about brick repointing
How do you remove failed pointing without damaging the bricks?
Hand raking with a plugging chisel and a hammer. It is slower than an angle grinder but it does not shatter the arrises on the bricks and it does not leave a grey smear on the face. For a typical terrace, full hand raking takes two to three days per elevation.
Why does my Victorian terrace have rising damp?
Most Victorian terraces were built with a slate damp course at the base of the walls. Over the years, garden beds, paths, or concrete are built up against the wall above the damp course level. This bridges the damp course and lets moisture from the soil wick up into the brickwork. The fix is to expose the original damp course and keep soil and hard surfaces below it.
How long does repointing take on a Victorian terrace?
For a single elevation on a typical Paddington or Woollahra terrace, two to three weeks. Two elevations together, three to five weeks. We give a real schedule before we start.
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