Making a Point

So in my last post I mentioned that I was taking on the task of repointing my house. While I’ve done limited masonry projects in my day, I assumed this would be an easy enough task to do myself, just a bit time consuming. While I was correct on both of those issues, the degree to which I underestimated how difficult this would be is kind of ridiculous.

The process to clear the old mortar was easy enough. Take a hammer and chisel, then smack old mortar until you think you’ve gotten enough of the loose stuff out of the way. It takes a little while but it’s a fairly simple task. What I found to be the hard part was getting the new mortar back in.

What I realized very quickly was that trowels, mortar bags, or any other tool that might be used for this job were quickly proven to be useless. In order to get the mortar to stand up properly the mix had to be relatively dry. This meant that the only tools I could use to apply the new stuff were my hands. While this wouldn’t normally be a problem, the fact that it was mortar made it painful. Of course I didn’t realize this until late in the game.

Basically, I was running my hands through wet sandpaper for the entire day. When I noticed the pain setting in I, decided to apply tape to the trouble spots and keep going (because putting on gloves would make too much sense). By the end of the day my fingertips were worn raw, my hands were incredibly dry, and my hands were covered in tape. I guess there is a reason the people that do this for a living charge so much money. Their glove budget alone must be astronomical.