Daniel Sullivan
Hi Lynn, sorry to hear you have had underqualified builders mess up the re-pointing. Whenever re-pointing any type of brickwork you must firstly remove all the old mortar, to a depth of at least 15 mm. And the joints must be cleaned out with a stiff brush . When repointing, the mortar mix should be of 3 sand to 1 cement. It should be mixed up one packet of the time as if too much is mixed up it will begin to dry out and crumble. This is maybe what has happened with your previous builder. A pointer prefers to use fine sharp sand for the mortar mix as it goes exceptionally har which is what you want of course . Hope this is of help to you, many thanks Daniel active roofing and building.
