Repointing in Bury

Bury's older streets around Fishpool, Elton and Freetown are mostly Victorian and Edwardian brick terraces — soft red brick that suffers badly when it's been repointed in hard cement. Further out, Tottington, Walmersley and Holcombe have stone cottages and boundary walls that want lime. Whitefield and Radcliffe are largely 1930s and post-war brick.

We're in Bury most weeks. Scott surveys personally and the team turn up when the quote says.

The red brick around Fishpool, Elton and the Rock is soft and the joints were originally lime. Where it has been patched in hard cement the brick faces are usually blowing and the wall looks sound from the pavement until you get close. We rake the cement out, replace any spalled bricks and repoint in a softer mix, struck to match the rest of the street.

Tottington, Walmersley and Holcombe Brook are a different job: coursed stone and rubble boundary walls, often with the mortar washed out of the top courses. Copings re-bedded, the top three or four courses raked and repointed in lime, and the wall stops shedding stone into the garden.

Chimneys are the most common call from Bury — we do the stack, the flaunching and the pots in one visit from a tower, and check the lead while we're up there.