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https://www.askthetrades.co.uk/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.pl DIY Forum >> Building Questions >> cost to build/renovate an old stone wall https://www.askthetrades.co.uk/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.pl?num=1477734596 Message started by john1066 on Oct 29^th, 2016, 10:49am

Title: cost to build/renovate an old stone wall
Post by john1066 on Oct 29^th, 2016, 10:49am

I have a 46metre long 120 cm high old stone wall on the property which I want repointed and maybe heightened to 180cm. So several questions.
Any ideas what it would cost to repoint wall as is and rebuild a ten metre section of it. I'm looking ideally for approximate labour costs per meter and how much cement and sand would be needed for the repointing.
And what would be the extra labour cost per meter to highten up to 180cm.

Thanks,
John

Title: Re: cost to build/renovate an old stone wall
Post by woodsmith on Oct 29^th, 2016, 5:43pm

It's not really possible to give you much of an idea on pricing I'm afraid as I can only give you a best guess, but if this is an old wall I would think there is a good chance it would have originally been pointed in lime rather than cement.

First you need to find out if the current pointing is cement or lime (lime tends to be softer with larger particles, cement mortar is hard and sandy if it will break up at all)

Then dig out some of the pointing and see if the mortar is cement or lime based (again, lime mortar is coarse grained and may have small lumps of white lime in it).

Cement pointing lime mortar is a bad idea but some builders still do it and some think adding lime to cement mortar makes it lime mortar, but it doesn't, lime mortar is made by mixing NHL lime (or alternatively lime putty) with sharp sand with absolutely no cement added to the mix.

Repointing stone is a time consuming task and as a very rough guide it will probably cost you upwards of £50 per square metre.

Title: Re: cost to build/renovate an old stone wall
Post by londonman on Oct 29^th, 2016, 9:37pm

Woodsmith is spot on. Any person who says 'I'll do it in cement'...run away. If it is an old wall then it will be lime.

Costing will also depend where you are in the country. And don't forget..there must be a million miles of dry-stone walling that has never seen cement or lime in its life.