DIY masonry?

[Kenoryn]

I just got a quote for some masonry work on my 1890 brick house and it came in at over $5K - ouch! I'm wondering about doing it myself. There is about 100 sq ft of repointing, and this to me looks pretty simple although probably tedious and time-consuming for a beginner like me. I'll have to use lime mortar, it seems, and find a way to match the colour and style of the existing mortar joints. The other work is replacing some bricks that have been damaged by salt along the driveway, resetting a few stones in the foundation, and redoing the top few courses of the chimney and capping it (used to be for furnace, but I now have high-efficiency direct-vent furnace and water heater). The chimney one I am thinking I'll leave to the masons as it will need scaffolding etc. It's about $1200 of the quote. But I think I can do the repointing and I'm not sure about replacing bricks or re-setting stones. Anyone else taken this on - is this a good DIY job? Or portions of it?

[skye]

You can definitely do the pointing yourself and possibly even get into it by thinking about the good you're doing your house in making it last for another 100 years. I found it really therapeutic doing mine though it took the better part of three summers. (I can now confirm that this is not advised as the colour will change somewhat according to different weather conditions).   Buying lime and sand are both pretty cheap - I'd estimate that for an area over twice yours, it cost me about 140 Euro (I'm in France). Figure that you can probably do about  about 2 metres square/day if you don't want to push yourself too much (i.e. spend more than three hours or so). The colour will depend on the (sharp) sand that you use. There's a lot of advice around on ratios for mixing the lime and sand (probably about 1: 3). The trick is letting it dry slowly so that the lime doesn't crack however its a very forgiving material generally provided it's not too cold or too hot. September would probably be a good month in Ontario...good luck!

[worms]

Kenoryn, it is definitely a DIY activity and as Skye mentions, very therapeutic.  Lime is very forgiving and keeps well in the tub, so you can work at your own pace (as long as you are not using a hydraulic lime).  It needs to stay damp till it carbonates and not freeze in that time, so you will need to stop for winter (although the walls of your house will probably stay above freezing until it is really cold outside).

Get yourself over to the Period Property Forum and you will find lots of useful threads on lime pointing.  It's a UK site but they'll still welcome a Canuck!  Post some pics of the house and they will welcome you with open arms!

[Kenoryn]

Thank you both! That's very helpful. I will do at least the pointing myself. I have a week's vacation left to devote to some project or other, so maybe this will be the project. Will do some more research on replacing bricks and setting foundation stones, and I'll definitely check out the Period Property Forum.