Traditional Lime Pointing
Pointing is the act of filling mortar between Masonry joints to protect the stonework from water ingress.
Using traditional Lime based mortars allows old walls to ‘breath’. This is especially important in pre 19th century stone buildings which have no cavity to speak of, traditionally built stone buildings consist of two stone skins with rubble and lime packing in the centre.
Lime based mortars allow moister and water vapour to freely escape from the stonework, and helps to prevent internal damp issues. Most often older houses with on-going damp issues find the route cause to be either damaged or degraded external pointing or the use of hard Portland cement based mixes.
Cement based mortars are widely regarded as being decremental to the health of old stone buildings as they work to ‘seal’ the stonework, trapping moister within. Which in tern contributes to freeze and thaw damage and damp. They are also hard in nature which over time will cause the stone to degrade, this is especially true for softer stone such as Sandstone buildings.
Pennine Stonecraft specialise in the removal of old damaged mortar pointing and reapplication of new Lime pointing, sympathetic to the look of the original building.