Perous Secret Diary - Keep Out

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TUCK n' ting update

(photos and tuck pointing by Robert Cavender)

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3 stages of tuck pointing

it's in the details

news from the frontline:

we HAD to repoint the whole of the railway-side of new/old house: that's the side that takes a battering from the british weather and there was a lot of missing mortar

we needed to repoint SOME of the rear elevation so we repointed the whole of it because it looks so much better than having patchy parts (oo-er) and over the years people had made repairs with modern cement, so we restored it to lime mortar.

we had to rebuild some of the street-side wall after removing the buddleia that was growing all the way through it and made it safe AND rebuilt the short wall that was being pushed over by the holly tree, so we repointed the whole wall AND that side of the house to match the rest (we still have a bit to finish on the far right end of the street-side wall, which was outside the hoarding)

i personally ground-out the old mortar and awful cement pointing on the extension at the back of house but didnt personally repoint it.

we did all that repointing to match the main house too.

local roofer tom griffin has done a wonderful job completely re-slating and re-leading the main roof (we didn't HAVE to do it now but as the scaffolding was up and as we're in repair and restore mode, we decided to get it done)

the twiddly 1980's garden gate with a bit of rotten wood tied behind it has been replaced with gates matching the design of the original Georgian railings at the front of the house.

and so to front of house

we didn't NEED to repoint the front of the house AT ALL : /

but

we couldn't have three sides restored and not the front, really

so we committed to repointing that too.

we THOUGHT we were going to just be lime pointing same as the back and sides and extension of house

but on investigation, our house, like two doors down had tuck pointing on the front.

in tuck pointing, the mortar colour isn't light lime, it's lime colour-matched as close as possible, with okra, to the bricks.

when the mortar is still soft, it is cut with a line and then a white lime ribbon is inserted and cut itself with a straight edge.

it's a real old school skill.

very slow

(and expensive, of course: aargh)

but it looks AMAZING!

thankyou to bob and mr. matthew miller

thankyou to andy (and Liam and others) for the lime pointing and brickwork too.

ALL of the windows at front of house will be restored (in fact ALL of the windows on the whole house will have been restored)

at the 'end' (which is in sight) i'll give some full credits here to all those who've been helping us on this monster project

if you're passing, look up and marvel at bob (the builder)'s patience and skills as he restores the front of our old house to it's former glory.

and shout 'BRAVO BOB!' at him

Perous Secret Diary - Keep Out: May 24, 2019