Tuckpointing near you

The governing idea in all traditional masonry work is that the mortar is the sacrificial element. It is meant to be softer and more permeable than the units around it, so that movement is taken up in the joint and moisture leaves through the joint. Replace it with something harder and less permeable and the stresses and the moisture have nowhere to go except through the face of the brick.

That is why the shift Heritage Council Victoria describes matters so much here. Lime was the main binder in mortars and plasters for Australia's early colonial buildings, and cement mortars became common after the second world war, taking traditional lime knowledge with them. A great deal of Australian nineteenth-century brickwork has since been repointed in cement by people who were doing what they had been taught, and the damage shows up decades later as spalled and crumbling brick faces beside perfectly intact joints.

So the specification conversation is the important one, and it should happen before anyone touches the wall. Ask what binder is proposed, why it suits this particular brick, and what evidence there is about the existing mortar. On a heritage item that question is not optional: it goes directly to the condition in the New South Wales standard exemptions that new materials or processes must not exacerbate the decay of significant fabric due to chemical incompatibility.

It begins with diagnosis rather than with a grinder. Establish what the existing mortar is, what the brick is, why the joint has failed, and whether the real problem is somewhere else, such as a failed gutter above, ground built up against the wall, or a bridged damp-proof course. Repointing a wall that is wet for another reason simply buries the evidence.

Raking out is where most damage is done. Mechanical cutting on a soft brick wall will widen the joint, chip the arrises and leave saw marks that are permanent, so on an older wall the work is done carefully and by hand where the brick is soft. Then the joint is dampened appropriately, the new mortar is placed in the joint in the correct number of passes, and the profile is finished to match what was there.

Tuckpointing, where it applies, follows the repointing. The stopping mortar is coloured to match the brick, and the fine ribbon is laid in and cut to a consistent width. It is slow, skilled and visible from the footpath, which is why it is worth asking to see completed examples in your suburb before engaging anyone. Curing matters too, and a lime-based mortar needs protecting from drying too fast in Australian conditions.

Heritage controls reach mortar joints more often than owners expect, because the joint is visible fabric and a repointed wall reads differently from the footpath. Where a building is on the New South Wales State Heritage Register or under an interim heritage order, subsection 57(1) of the Heritage Act 1977 sets the approval requirement and the standard exemptions set the relief, and that relief is drawn around significance rather than around the size of the job.

That last phrase is the whole tuckpointing question in one sentence. A repointed joint in the wrong colour, the wrong width or the wrong profile is not sympathetic to the appearance and detailing of the existing, and on a listed building that is an approval problem as well as an aesthetic one. The condition about not exacerbating decay through chemical incompatibility is the mortar mix question restated in legal language.

Local heritage listings and character overlays catch far more houses than state registers, and they are administered by councils. Brisbane, for instance, requires a development application for changes to a local heritage place unless exempt under a heritage exemption certificate or a general exemption certificate. Ask your council which instrument applies to your address before the scaffolding goes up.

On the Code side, masonry in a Class 1 building is dealt with by clause H2D4 of NCC Volume Two, which satisfies the weatherproofing and rising damp performance requirements where the masonry is carried out in accordance with AS 3700, or AS 4773.1 and AS 4773.2, or Part 5.7 of the ABCB Housing Provisions subject to conditions. It applies to every external wall including the junction between the wall and any window or door. Those are the standards a surveyor or an engineer will refer to if the work goes beyond maintenance.

On the trade side, pointing and tuckpointing are general building work in most jurisdictions, so the ordinary thresholds apply: a contractor licence in New South Wales above the Home Building Act threshold, a QBCC licence in Queensland above the state threshold. Written contracts and the ten per cent deposit cap apply in New South Wales above the contract threshold for both small jobs and large jobs.

Beyond licensing, the real selection criterion is demonstrated work on buildings of the same period and brick type in your city. This is a craft skill with a shallow bench in Australia, and the difference between a good job and a ruinous one is invisible for the first few years.