Quotes for lime repointing?

[MsShopper]

Has anyone had any quotes recently for raking out cement mortar and repointing with lime mortar?

We’ve had a quote from a specialist firm local to us (West Mids) but it’s eye-watering - around £16k inc VAT for the front, side and rear (we’re semi-detached). I’m just wondering if that’s the going rate, as the other firms I contacted have ghosted me so I can’t easily compare.

Any quotes over the past couple of years would be great if you could share - thank you!

For 16k I’d buy a decent tower and DIY over the summer. It’s not a difficult job at all.

Most firms won’t quote for lime because they aren’t used to working with it. Post on Your old house uk - repair and conservation on facebook.

Although they will probably try to talk you into doing a course to do it yourself! Not just the expense but the lack of tradesmen trained in it.

Pointing with lime is basically the same as with sand /cement except it takes longer to go off and is softer to work with. You can buy it ready mixed in tubs so is easy to diy. The crap part is raking out all the old to a decent depth. Grinding out old lime pointing makes a lot more dust than sand/ cement does.

Its a time consuming job, unsure how big your house is but £16k sounds like a lot.

This is comparable to quotes I've had.

Thanks all for the responses. For various reasons, DIY is definitely out. But I’ll try that FB group, thanks!

Look for a tradesman in an area with a lot of old houses, most of the brickies in my area work with lime because most of the housing stock was built between 1890 and 1925 , you could offer to cover any additional travel expenses/agree shorter working days to account for time.

around £80/90 per sq metre excluding materials, neighbour was quoted that. east london.

Following with interest as we’re planning the same at some point. Have you had any cheaper quotes?

Hello @MsShopper . Curious to know how much you paid in the end, or if you got any more reasonable quotes?

Might need to get quotes myself some time soon, and what our surveyor has quoted seems to be a vast underestimate imo.