What repointing actually is
The mortar joints in a stone wall are meant to be the sacrificial part. Stone is expensive and permanent; mortar is cheap and renewable. On a well-built traditional wall, weather attacks the joints first, they slowly erode, and every century or so someone rakes them out and replaces them. The stone itself is never touched.
Repointing is that renewal — and done properly it is the single most effective piece of maintenance an old stone building can have. Done badly, with the wrong material, it is the fastest way to destroy one.
Does your wall need repointing?
Not every open joint is urgent. The signs that genuinely matter:
- Joints receded more than about 10–15mm behind the face of the stone, so water sits in the recess rather than running off.
- Mortar you can rake out with a finger or a car key — if it crumbles to dust or sand, it has stopped doing its job.
- Hard grey cement standing proud of eroding stone. This is the urgent one, and the reason is explained below.
- Damp patches inside that track back to an exposed elevation, especially on a solid (non-cavity) wall.
- Plant growth in the joints — buddleia and ivy roots open joints faster than any weather.
- Loose or rocking stones, which usually means the bedding mortar has gone as well as the pointing.
If you are not sure, send photographs through our quote form. We will tell you honestly if a wall can be left another few years — quite often it can.
Lime, not cement — and why it matters so much here
Cotswold limestone is soft and porous. It handles water by absorbing it and letting it evaporate back out, and traditional lime mortar is designed to do the same: it is softer than the stone, breathable, and it flexes with the small movements every old building makes.
Cement is the opposite of all three. It is harder than Cotswold stone, close to waterproof, and rigid. Point a limestone wall in cement and moisture that used to leave through the joints has only one way out — through the face of the stone. Every winter, frost expands that trapped water and blows a thin layer off the stone. Over a few decades you get the pattern seen on thousands of Cotswold buildings: eroded, crumbling stones sitting behind a proud grid of intact grey cement.
That damage is permanent. The stone does not grow back. Which is why a large share of the repointing we do around Cheltenham and the Cotswolds is undoing cement work from the 1960s to the 1990s — and why we will not point a traditional solid stone wall in cement, whatever the specification says.
How we repoint
- Assess and test. We establish what the existing mortar is, how deep the joints have failed, and what mix will match. Where the building is old or important, we take a sample.
- Rake out by hand. Joints are cut back to sound mortar — normally to about twice the joint width — using hand tools. This is the slow part and it is where damage is done if it is rushed: angle grinders widen joints and take the arrises (edges) off the stone permanently. On very hard cement we may use a fine mechanical cutter within the joint only, never touching stone.
- Clean and dampen. Dust brushed and flushed out, and the joint wetted so the wall does not suck water out of the fresh mortar before it can cure.
- Mix to match. A lime mortar matched to the original in binder, aggregate and colour. Local sand is what makes new pointing look like it belongs — the colour comes from the aggregate, not from dye.
- Pack and finish. Mortar pressed firmly into the full depth in layers, then finished when it has taken up — usually brushed back so the stone stands slightly proud, never smeared across the face.
- Protect and cure. Lime needs slow, damp curing. We keep the work shaded and damp, covered in hot or freezing weather, for as long as it needs.
Joint finishes — and the one to avoid
The finish changes how the wall reads more than most people expect. We normally use a flush or slightly recessed brushed joint, which lets the stone dominate and sheds water properly.
What we do not do is strap or ribbon pointing — the raised bands of mortar standing proud of the stone, often seen on badly repaired cottages. It looks wrong on a Cotswold building, it holds water against the stone, and it usually hides a joint that was never properly filled.
What repointing costs
Repointing is priced by area, and the variables are: how hard the existing mortar is to remove (cement is far slower than failed lime), the joint width, access and scaffolding, and how much of the wall genuinely needs doing. Partial repointing of the worst elevation is often the sensible option and we will say so.
Quotations are free, written and itemised, separating what is urgent from what can wait a few seasons.
Where we work
We repoint across Gloucestershire and the Cotswolds, including Cheltenham, Winchcombe, Tewkesbury, Gloucester, Broadway, Stow-on-the-Wold and Cirencester. Repointing sits alongside our wider stone restoration and stone wall repair work.
Frequently asked questions
How much does repointing cost in Cheltenham? It is priced per square metre of wall and depends most on what has to come out — removing hard cement can take several times longer than raking out perished lime. Access matters too: a two-storey elevation needing scaffolding costs more than a garden wall. We quote after seeing the wall, free and in writing.
How long does lime repointing last? Properly executed lime pointing on a sheltered elevation can last a century; on an exposed, weather-facing wall, several decades. It is designed to erode slowly — that is the point of it. When it does, it is renewed again without ever touching the stone.
Can you repoint in winter? Lime will not cure in frost, and freezing green mortar ruins it. We generally work from spring to autumn and stop when night temperatures approach freezing, unless the area can be fully sheeted and protected. Anyone offering to lime point through a hard frost is cutting a corner.
Will repointing stop my damp problem? Sometimes — if water is genuinely entering through open joints, closing them properly helps a great deal. But damp in old buildings often has other causes: leaking gutters, raised ground levels, cement render, or impermeable internal finishes. We would rather find the actual cause than sell you a repoint that does not fix it.
Do I need scaffolding? For anything above ground-floor reach, yes — it is safer and produces better work than a ladder, because the mason can work at the right height. We include it in the quotation so there are no surprises.
Is my building listed, and does that change things? Much of Winchcombe, Cheltenham and the north Cotswolds is listed or in a conservation area. Like-for-like repointing in matching materials is usually acceptable, but changing the mortar type or joint finish may need consent. We can advise and provide method details to support an application.