Repointing in Whitworth

Whitworth, Facit and Shawforth are almost entirely stone — gritstone terraces built with lime. Most of the problems we see here are old cement repointing blowing the stone faces and holding water against the wall. We rake it out and repoint in lime, matched to the sandy colour of the original.

It's a fifteen-minute run up the valley from our base.

The terraces along Market Street, Hall Street and up through Facit and Shawforth towards Britannia are coursed gritstone from the local quarries, and the mortar should be a natural hydraulic lime in a sandy-buff colour to match. We rake the old cement out to sound mortar — often 40–60mm deep — and repoint in lime, struck slightly recessed so water runs off the stone rather than sitting on the joint.

The valley is exposed to the west and the chimneys and gables on the Rochdale-facing side go first. A stack that's shedding mortar onto the roof, or a damp patch at the top of a bedroom wall, is usually a repointing job rather than a roofing one. We work from a tower, re-bed the pots and renew the flaunching at the same time.

Garden and boundary walls along the Spodden and up the side streets are drystone-built or lime-pointed rubble; we re-bed the copings and repoint the top courses so they stop shedding stone.