Cost of re-pointing house

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Does anyone know what a reasonable price would be for re-pointing the front of an old stone-built mid-terrace house? It is totally flat-fronted (ie, no fancy sticking-out bits anywhere), two storeys, four windows, and quite tall. It's in the north of England.

I had some internal work done recently which I thought was very reasonably priced, and the builders did a good job. I went back to the same people for this quote, and they have come back with what seems to me to be a jaw-droppingly massive price. Is re-pointing really that expensive? (Quote is pushing towards 4K)

That doesn't sound too bad to me - they'll need at least a scaffolding tower to work safely, the old mortar has to be removed before the repointing can be done. But get other quotes and compare.

Probably about right - as fudge said, it's the cost of the scaffolding that gets you.

Oh.

Oh dear.

I was so hoping someone would be telling me it was a ridiculous price.

Oh well. Thanks for the responses.

We live in a mid-terrace near Leeds and were quoted £1500 to have the front repointed.

10 miles from York and we paid approx 2.5k for a semi detached house to be repointed.

Had a shock today as a handy man/ gardener I found via local neighbourhood app charged me £50 an hour for placing lawn edging which totalled £ 600. I enquired his rate before hand and was told £ 50 flat rate and assumed that it either means per job or minimal appearance rate and just went ahead. He worked 9 hours yesterday and today 3 hours and as I was busy I left my husband to deal with it but were both shocked with total bill. I guess it's my own stupidly so hard lesson learned but wonder if I have been taken for a ride ? The work is excellent and he did work but I usually pay £ 25 an hour for diy jobs.

What era of property is it? If it's old, make sure it's repointed with LIME and not cement. From my research, it's a dusty and tedious prep job which involves removing the old mortar to the correct depth, etc. Which part of North are you? It could be cheaper to hire scaffold yourself. Mine costs £400 for a month for 4 sides and 3 level. If you hire one yourself, make sure it got the necessary tag on the scaffold for Health & Safety. Sorry don't know what it's called.

Edit above: The mortar mix will depend on the age of your property and if you're particular about the colour when it dries, you can ask for a patch test(?). So make sure you when the tradesmen give you the quote, make sure to ask after they give the pricing what kind of mortar mixture it'll be.

As said above, if your house is Victorian or older it will most possibly be lime mortar - see www.mikewye.co.uk/guidesheets/

And it should be replaced with lime and not a lime and cement mix - the lime let's the house breath and if blocked with cement the inside will get damp

maybe find a local stone mason and ask them to quote for the job, or recommend someone?

As I wrote this my stone mason is outside taking apart and preparing the pointing on my neighbours stone wall and will be rebuilding in places and pointing it all, minus the scaffolding cost - the surface area won't be far off your house size and I know for a fact the masons invoice will be significantly less than you have been quoted

It's worth shopping around

The final word though, if you are happy with someone's work try to negiotiate on price with them but accept to pay a higher price for quality work