Job takeoff
Repointing brickwork (tuckpointing) takeoff
Rake out and repoint the mortar joints of a brick wall (tuckpointing, as North American quotes call it): the access, the joints worked out from the face and its bricks, the repair mortar in litres gauged as lime and sand or as cement, lime and sand to match the mortar already in the joints, and the frames' mastic (caulk) renewed while the access is up, with the raking out, the spalled bricks, the movement joints and the downpipes taken off and refixed listed, structural cracking flagged and nothing certified.
A takeoff is the trade word for the shopping list a job produces — every material, and how much of each, worked out by its own cited calculator.
- 9Measurements in
- 4Trades out
Choose the build-up
Each layer changes the materials below; the dimensions stay the same.
Calculators behind the other choices:
Calculators behind the other choices:
Compare one layer at these dimensions, with the rest of the build-up held as you have it:
Give the job once
Every figure on the right follows these, in the units you choose.
Been given a quote for this job?
Paste it into the repointing quote check: each line is read against these same calculators — what it leaves out, what it adds, and what to ask.
Check the quoteEvery trade, from those dimensions
then change a dimension, and each line shows what moved.
| Trade | Quantity | |
|---|---|---|
Scaffold (access)Scaffold Face Area and Hire Quantity CalculatorThe face the scaffold covers, along the length repointed and up to the working height you give: the platform the joints are raked, pointed and brushed down from, and a protected place for the new pointing to cure under its covers. Its hire runs from the first joint raked to the last one brushed, and it stays up until the downpipes are back. Set the height to 0 where a tower or ladders reach a low wall or one bay instead; the tower is listed work, and one face is never reached by both. A scaffold standing on a public pavement (a sidewalk) needs a licence or permit, which is the scaffolder's or the owner's and not part of this row.
Why this quantity?
Resting on
Change any other figure on the Scaffold Face Area and Hire Quantity Calculator | 495 ft² of face | |
Repointing (repoint, repointed, tuckpointing)Tuckpointing Mortar Repair Volume CalculatorThe joint in the face, its length times its height less the windows and doors, for a US modular brick 7 5/8 × 2 1/4 in (194 × 57 mm) in running bond, three courses to 8 in (203 mm) and one brick to 8 in along each course: about 18.9 m of joint to the m² (5.77 ft to the sq ft). At the width you measured and the depth raked out, the page's litres are the mortar in the finished joints, before what is lost on the hawk; the mix row gauges them. Before the face is tuckpointed the raked depth is checked and a sample area is pointed in the matched mortar for the owner or the specifier to approve its colour, texture and profile; then the joints are wetted, filled in thin layers, tooled to the wall's own profile, kept damp under cover while they cure and brushed down, all this row's work, with weep holes, open head joints and foundation vents never pointed over. The raking out itself is listed, not measured here.
Why this quantity?
Resting on
Change any other figure on the Tuckpointing Mortar Repair Volume Calculator | 35.48 gal | |
Lime and sand (NHL or lime putty)Lime Mortar Mix Calculator (NHL and Lime Putty)The pointing row's litres taken as the mortar to make, gauged as lime and sand at the lime page's opening grade and ratio, NHL 3.5 at 1 : 2 1/2, with its waste allowance: bags of natural hydraulic lime, or tubs of putty, with the sand in the working. Lime is where this page opens in every market, and it is not a recommendation: the mortar is the one already in the joints, and the lime, its grade, the ratio, the sand and the colour are the specification's, set on the lime page. This row gauges the mortar; laying it is the pointing row's.
Why this quantity?
Resting on
The waste allowance: the calculator's working figure, a trade convention. Change any other figure on the Lime Mortar Mix Calculator (NHL and Lime Putty) | 2 bags | |
Frame sealant (mastic or caulk)Caulk & Sealant CalculatorThe mastic (caulk) round each window and door frame cut out and renewed while the access is up, all four sides at the average opening you gave, on the tube page: its 10.1 US fl oz (299 ml) tube at a 1/4 in (6 mm) bead, with its waste allowance. Old mastic cut out of a gap wider than that bead takes more per frame than the page shows, so the gap is worth measuring at one frame first. Set the frames to 0 where their sealant is left as it is. The movement joints' sealant is listed work of its own, and is never pointed over with mortar.
Why this quantity?
Resting on
The waste allowance: the calculator's working figure, a trade convention. | 4 tubes | |
Scaffold (access)Scaffold Face Area and Hire Quantity CalculatorThe face the scaffold covers, along the length repointed and up to the working height you give: the platform the joints are raked, pointed and brushed down from, and a protected place for the new pointing to cure under its covers. Its hire runs from the first joint raked to the last one brushed, and it stays up until the downpipes are back. Set the height to 0 where a tower or ladders reach a low wall or one bay instead; the tower is listed work, and one face is never reached by both. A scaffold standing on a public pavement (a sidewalk) needs a licence or permit, which is the scaffolder's or the owner's and not part of this row.
Why this quantity? | 45 m² of face | |
Repointing (repoint, repointed, tuckpointing)Tuckpointing Mortar Repair Volume CalculatorThe joint in the face, its length times its height less the windows and doors, for a metric brick 215 × 65 mm (about 8 1/2 × 2 1/2 in) in stretcher bond with 10 mm (3/8 in) joints: a bed joint to every 75 mm (about 3 in) of height and a perpend 65 mm (2 1/2 in) tall to every brick, about 17.2 m of joint to the m² (5.24 ft to the sq ft). At the width you measured and the depth raked out, the page's litres are the mortar in the finished joints, before what is lost on the hawk; the mix row gauges them. Before the face is pointed the raked depth is checked and a sample area is pointed in the matched mortar for the owner or the specifier to approve its colour, texture and profile; then the joints are wetted, filled in thin layers, finished to the wall's own profile, kept damp under cover while they cure and brushed down, all this row's work, with weep holes, open perpends and air bricks never pointed over. The raking out itself is listed, not measured here.
Why this quantity? | 125.8 L | |
Lime and sand (NHL or lime putty)Lime Mortar Mix Calculator (NHL and Lime Putty)The pointing row's litres taken as the mortar to make, gauged as lime and sand at the lime page's opening grade and ratio, NHL 3.5 at 1 : 2 1/2, with its waste allowance: bags of natural hydraulic lime, or tubs of putty, with the sand in the working. Lime is where this page opens in every market, and it is not a recommendation: the mortar is the one already in the joints, and the lime, its grade, the ratio, the sand and the colour are the specification's, set on the lime page. This row gauges the mortar; laying it is the pointing row's.
Why this quantity? | 2 bags | |
Frame sealant (mastic or caulk)Caulk & Sealant CalculatorThe mastic (caulk) round each window and door frame cut out and renewed while the access is up, all four sides at the average opening you gave, on the tube page: its 10.1 US fl oz (299 ml) tube at a 1/4 in (6 mm) bead, with its waste allowance. Old mastic cut out of a gap wider than that bead takes more per frame than the page shows, so the gap is worth measuring at one frame first. Set the frames to 0 where their sealant is left as it is. The movement joints' sealant is listed work of its own, and is never pointed over with mortar.
Why this quantity? | 4 tubes |
Estimates, not a quote. Each row gives its base, the allowance on top, the adjusted figure and what to order; change an allowance on the row, or open its reasoning to see every figure it rests on. A trade's own page carries what it does not cover — open the one you are about to order against.
Labour and programme
Person-hours for the rows going in, from trade rules of thumb: a range for each piece of work, never a price.
- Repointing (repoint, repointed, tuckpointing)64 h (36–178)
- Frame sealant (mastic or caulk)3.1 h (1.6–6.5)
About 67 person-hours in the rows that carry them, between 37 and 184.
Trade by trade
- Mason1 mason8 days
- Glazier1 glazierhalf a day
About 8½ days, one trade after another at eight hours a day. Left out: drying and curing, deliveries, inspections, trades overlapping.
2 rows carry no hours of their own
- Scaffold (access): Scaffolding is not rated here: it is usually erected by a scaffolding firm and priced as hire, and where your own crew puts it up, the system and the height set the time.
- Lime and sand (NHL or lime putty): counted with Repointing (repoint, repointed, tuckpointing)
Labour and programme
Person-hours for the rows going in, from trade rules of thumb: a range for each piece of work, never a price.
- Repointing (repoint, repointed, tuckpointing)57 h (31–157)
- Frame sealant (mastic or caulk)3.1 h (1.6–6.5)
About 60 person-hours in the rows that carry them, between 33 and 164.
Trade by trade
- Mason1 mason7 days
- Glazier1 glazierhalf a day
About 7½ days, one trade after another at eight hours a day. Left out: drying and curing, deliveries, inspections, trades overlapping.
2 rows carry no hours of their own
- Scaffold (access): Scaffolding is not rated here: it is usually erected by a scaffolding firm and priced as hire, and where your own crew puts it up, the system and the height set the time.
- Lime and sand (NHL or lime putty): counted with Repointing (repoint, repointed, tuckpointing)
Setups you have saved
The build-up, the dimensions and any allowance you changed — kept on this device, and reusable on any job. Your prices are not copied in: they stay in your price book, so a setup never holds a stale one.
How far does a budget go?
At your own prices, with this build-up unchanged.
About this job
Pointing is the outer skin of mortar in a brick wall's joints, and it is meant to wear before the bricks do: a joint that has washed out, cracked away from its bricks or gone soft enough to scrape out with a key is cut back and filled again, and the bricks are left alone. Repointing, which a North American contractor calls tuckpointing, is mostly preparation and patience. The old mortar is raked out square to an even depth without widening the joints or chipping the bricks' edges, the dust is brushed out, and the new mortar is pressed in in thin layers, finished to the profile the wall already has, and kept damp and covered while it cures. A wall pointed over a shallow rake, or in a mortar harder than its bricks, can look finished and fail within a few winters.
The rows measure what is bought. The joint is worked out from the face you give, its length times its height less the windows and doors, and from the brick the wall is laid in: a metric brick, 215 × 65 mm (about 8 1/2 × 2 1/2 in) with 10 mm (3/8 in) joints, puts about 17.2 m of joint in every m² of face (5.24 ft in every sq ft), and a US modular brick, three courses to 8 in (203 mm), about 18.9 m (5.77 ft). The units pick the brick and either is one choice away; a stone wall, old imperial bricks or Flemish bond hold a different length of joint, which the pointing row's own page takes directly. That row turns the joint into litres of mortar at the width you measured and the depth raked out; the mix row gauges those litres into lime and sand, or cement, lime and sand; the scaffold row is the face the access covers, and the sealant row the frames whose mastic is renewed while it is up.
One question here is not a measurement: the mortar already in the joints. New pointing matches the old mortar's binder and is no harder than the brick, so a wall built in lime is pointed in lime, and a wall built in cement is pointed in a cement and lime mortar no stronger than its bricks. Which one, with its mix, its sand and its colour, is for the survey or the specification to name. The page opens on lime in every market, and that is not a recommendation: it opens there because that mistake does the less harm. A lime mortar in a cement-jointed wall is only softer than it needs to be; a cement mortar in a lime-jointed wall holds water in the brick and spalls its face.
Two checks come before the whole face is pointed: the depth of the raked joints, and a sample area pointed in the matched mortar and approved for its colour, texture and profile by the owner or the specifier. Weep holes, open perpends and air bricks (foundation vents) are left open. A crack that runs through the bricks or steps through the joints, or a wall that leans or bulges, is a structural question this page flags and never assesses, and rebuilding any of it is not part of the job; on a listed building or in a conservation area, the local authority's consent for the mortar and the work is the owner's to seek.
How each line reads
- Base
- What the calculator gives for these dimensions, before anything is added.
- Allowance
- Cutting waste, a lap or spare stock — named, with where it comes from, and changeable on the row.
- Adjusted
- The base with its allowance on top.
- Order
- What to buy: the adjusted figure in whole boards, bags, rolls or lengths.
The order this happens in
Quantities do not tell you the sequence, and on this job the sequence is where the money goes wrong.
- Have the wall surveyed and the mortar in its joints identified, lime or cement, with the specification naming the new mortar's binder, sand, mix and colour; on a listed building or in a conservation area, have the local authority's consent in hand before anything is raked out.
- Put the scaffold or the tower up along the face, with its licence or permit in place where it stands on a public pavement (sidewalk), and sheet the windows, doors, sills and the paving below.
- Isolate any outside light fixed across the joints, then take it off with the downpipes and their brackets, the cables, the satellite dishes and the alarm boxes; kill any moss, algae or lichen on the face with a biocide and brush it off.
- Rake the joints out square to the depth specified, by hand on soft brick or lime mortar and with a grinder under dust extraction only on hard cement mortar, without widening them, brush the dust out of every joint and check the depth along the face.
- Cut out and replace any brick found spalled or crumbling once its joints are open, and stop to have any crack through the bricks or stepping through the joints looked at before going on.
- Point a sample area in the matched mortar and have it approved for colour, texture and profile; then wet the joints and press the mortar in in thin layers from the hawk, finishing each to the wall's own profile once it is thumb-hard, with weep holes, open perpends and air bricks left open.
- Keep the new pointing damp and covered with hessian (burlap) from sun, wind, rain and frost while it cures, brush the face down once it has set, then cut out and reseal the movement joints and renew the mastic (caulk) round the frames.
- Refix the downpipes, lights and fittings into sound joints once the pointing has cured, clear the dust and mortar off the windows, sills and paving before the access comes down, and hand over the mortar's specification for the next repair.
What this takeoff does not cover
- Every brick past the handful priced.
- Crack stitching, structural cracks, their cause and any rebuild.
- Laboratory analysis of the old joints, or a conservation specification.
- Chemical stain stripping of the face.
- A chimney stack unless the access reaches it.
- The local authority's consent for a listed building or a conservation area, which is the owner's to seek.
- A pavement licence or sidewalk permit for anything standing on the public way.
- A water repellent or sealer coat on the face afterwards.
Quote check
Been given a quote for this job?
Paste it into the repointing quote check. Every line of it is read against these same calculators and your measurements. Quantities only, never prices.
What it leaves out
Every line this takeoff has that nothing on the quote reads as.
What it adds
Labour, removal, hire, fees — each named for what it is.
What to ask
One list of questions, ready to copy. Never a verdict.
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Frequently asked questions
- What does the repointing takeoff give for a typical job?
- Opened at Length of the face repointed 9 m · Height repointed, from the ground or the plinth 5 m · Windows and doors in the face 5 · Opening width, average 1.2 m · Opening height, average 1.4 m · Joint width, as measured on the wall 0.01 m · Depth the joints are raked out to 0.02 m · Scaffold's working height (0 where a tower or ladders reach) 5 m · Windows and doors resealed round their frames 5, it orders: Scaffold (access), 45 m² of face; Repointing (repoint, repointed, tuckpointing), 126 L; Lime and sand (NHL or lime putty), 2 bags; Frame sealant (mastic or caulk), 4 tubes. Opened at Length of the face repointed 30 ft · Height repointed, from the ground or the plinth 16.5 ft · Windows and doors in the face 5 · Opening width, average 4 ft · Opening height, average 4.5 ft · Joint width, as measured on the wall 0.39 in · Depth the joints are raked out to 0.75 in · Scaffold's working height (0 where a tower or ladders reach) 16.5 ft · Windows and doors resealed round their frames 5: Scaffold (access), 495 ft² of face; Repointing (repoint, repointed, tuckpointing), 35.5 gal; Lime and sand (NHL or lime putty), 2 bags; Frame sealant (mastic or caulk), 4 tubes. Every figure follows the dimensions you give it.
- Which calculators does the repointing takeoff run?
- 4 calculators, one to a line: Scaffold Face Area and Hire Quantity Calculator, Tuckpointing Mortar Repair Volume Calculator, Lime Mortar Mix Calculator (NHL and Lime Putty), Caulk & Sealant Calculator. Each has a page of its own with its formula and its sources; the takeoff runs them all on one set of dimensions.
- What does the repointing takeoff leave out?
- 8 things, each named on this page: Every brick past the handful priced; Crack stitching, structural cracks, their cause and any rebuild; Laboratory analysis of the old joints, or a conservation specification; Chemical stain stripping of the face; A chimney stack unless the access reaches it; The local authority's consent for a listed building or a conservation area, which is the owner's to seek; A pavement licence or sidewalk permit for anything standing on the public way; A water repellent or sealer coat on the face afterwards.
- Can I check a quote for this job against the takeoff?
- Yes. The repointing quote check reads a quote's lines against these same calculators and your measurements, and reports what it leaves out, what it adds and what to ask. It reads quantities, never prices.