repointing this garden wall

[dylanswall]

Hi, I have a small external garden wall above a raised flower bed that I want to repoint as it is full of larges cracks and crevaces that spew forth an unending supply of snails that are eating all my plants.

I am not massively worried about finish or matching the colour (although obviously I would prefer to do a good job). As I am a complete novice, and can only seem to find advice on repointing a standard brick wall, am I correct in saying that I do the following:

1) scrape away at the area I am filling
2) spray a bit of water on it
3) apply the mortar

My other questions are, having seen my wall:
1) is there any particular mortar I should use (the house is circa 1900 and the mortar doesn't seem to be very hard wearing so I am wondering it if is a lime render?)?
2) Is there anything (as a complete novice) that I should be aware of?

Cheers in advance for any help

Dylan

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• dylanswall
• 13 May 2012
• 1

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• dylanswall
• 13 May 2012
• 1

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• dylanswall
• 13 May 2012
• 1

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• dylanswall
• 13 May 2012
• 1

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• dylanswall
• 13 May 2012
• 1

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• dylanswall
• 13 May 2012
• 1

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• dylanswall
• 13 May 2012
• 1

Untitled

• dylanswall
• 13 May 2012
• 1

 

[tim00]

How lucky you are, to have a beautiful stone retaining wall thats not been marred by sloppy and inappropriate pointing.

The render will be lime and sand, probably 3-1 or 4-1. Re-use these proportions.

Raking out will be a long and tedious job: carefully use a thin cold chisel, and a small bolster, and a lump hammer if you have one. The long even beds can be angle grinded-out.

Rake out to a depth of 20-25mm, the mortar should come out easily.

Dont go wetting down, it might cause smears. Just slowly, using a small pointing trowel, press small dabs of mortar into the beds. Start/practice in an unobtrusive area. Do the vertical joints first then the beds. Allow to set, and the strike-off. Dont fiddle with it.

 

[dylanswall]

cheers for that. Will take my time and hopefully do the wall justice

 

[joe-90]

Why mess it up? It looks fine as it is.

 

[dylanswall]

unfortunately while somes bits are ok, there are masses of holes and crevices which are harbouring lots of snails which are eating my (expensive) plants despite my daily killing sprees. Hopefully filling the main ones should stop this