It’s a fascinating question for us here at Leyden and the simple answer to ‘how much does repointing cost?’ is … ‘it’s not cheap’. We’ll go into the specifics further on in this piece, but whenever you look at the cost of any building maintenance work, then the real question should always be, ‘what’s the cost of not doing it?’

In the case of heritage buildings, domestic or larger scale, repointing is one of the most important elements of the external fabric. It’s not just about creating a nice look and feel that shows off the stonework beautifully.

It’s about preservation for the future and it’s the reason why stone-built buildings last as long as they do and with the right maintenance work, there’s no reason why they shouldn’t last for years to come. Getting repointing work wrong is the equivalent of giving the building a shorter life expectancy and it really isn’t worth the risk.

The work involved

But to look at the cost of anything, you have to look at the work involved, as there should be a direct correlation between that and the price you end up paying for the work to be done. At Leyden, we know that there’s only one way to carry out lime repointing work and that’s with an unwavering attention to detail.

It requires a painstaking approach to dig out the old repointing which would have seen better days. It then needs the new lime repointing to be put back in precisely, with care, attention and love. If you think about it, repointing is just like dental work … teeth are only as good as the gums that hold then in place and that’s similar with lime repointing.

So, how much does repointing cost?

What this all means is that when it comes to answering the question about cost, you need to understand that the labour involved does make it expensive and we’ve never shied away from saying that here at Leyden. But equally, it’s not about cost ‘per se’, it’s about value.

Poorly executed repointing will reduce the life span of the building and it will undoubtedly require more work further down the line which just creates a false economy. The best and most effective way of getting a true idea of the cost of lime repointing is to pick up the phone or drop us a line here at Leyden. We’ll come out and see the job first-hand and we’ll give you an honest and realistic price. The thing to avoid is the people that are happy to price a job over the phone, which in our industry is impossible to do, so steer well clear.

At Leyden we consider ourselves to be experts when it comes to renders, hand-crafted pointing, lime plasters and decorative features. We pride ourselves on our craftsmanship and we love the fact that we’ve done our bit in the restoration and preservation of some of the South West’s most beautiful buildings.

What next?

So, if you’re restoring a period property and you need to find out how much a repointing project costs, then you really should be talking to us at Leyden or check out the rest of our repointing services page. We are after-all, serious about craftsmanship and we believe that craftsmanship should be for every project.

Matt & Hannah