Render or Re-Point? Choosing for a Brick House

Re-pointing and rendering: what’s the difference?

Re-pointing means raking out the old, decayed mortar from the joints between bricks to a suitable depth and filling them with fresh mortar, finished to a chosen profile. The bricks stay exactly as they are; only the joints are renewed. Done well, it sharpens up the look of a brick house, keeps rain out of the joints and extends the life of the wall.

Rendering covers the whole wall with a new finish. A modern system is typically a base coat with reinforcing mesh, a primer and a through-coloured finish coat; traditional renders are sand and cement or lime. The bricks disappear behind a seamless surface in your chosen colour.

They solve different problems, and knowing which problem you have is most of the decision. Re-pointing fixes failing joints. Rendering changes the face of the house, and can deal with problems in the bricks themselves that re-pointing can’t touch. Our exterior rendering guide covers the render side of the decision in full; this page is about choosing between the two.

When re-pointing is the right choice

Re-pointing is usually the right call when:

The bricks are sound. They’re not crumbling, flaking or cracked across large areas. A few damaged bricks can be cut out and replaced as part of the job.

The problem is the mortar. Joints are recessed, crumbling, sandy to the touch, or have gaps you can push a key into. Plants growing from joints and damp patches lined up with the mortar are common signs.

You like the brick. Many houses, from Victorian terraces to interwar semis and modern homes, have attractive brickwork that’s part of their character. Re-pointing keeps it.

The street is brick. On a row of matching brick houses a rendered house can look out of place, and in a conservation area rendering would need planning permission that may not be granted.

Budget is tight. Re-pointing is usually considerably cheaper per square metre than rendering, though it’s labour-intensive and costs vary with the condition of the joints, the type of mortar and access.

When rendering is the right choice

Rendering is usually the right call when:

The brick is mismatched or patched. Extensions in different brick, old repairs, filled-in openings and patchy replacement bricks can make a house look disjointed. Render ties everything together under one finish.

The bricks themselves are failing. Widespread spalling — where the face of the brick flakes away, often from frost — can’t be fixed by re-pointing. Replacing many bricks is expensive, and render can protect a weathered wall.

A wall keeps letting in driving rain. On very exposed elevations, particularly gable ends facing the prevailing weather, some brickwork struggles even with sound pointing. A suitable render can provide a weather-resistant outer layer, provided it’s breathable where the wall needs it.

You want a different look. A clean, modern rendered finish can transform a dated or plain brick house. If you simply don’t like the brick, re-pointing won’t change that.

The wall is already partly rendered or painted. If brick has been painted or patch-rendered in the past, returning it to clean brick can be difficult, and rendering is often the more practical route.

How the costs compare

Re-pointing is generally the cheaper of the two, often by a considerable margin, because it renews the joints rather than adding a whole new system to the wall. Its cost depends on how deeply the joints need raking out, the type of mortar (lime work takes longer), how many bricks need replacing, the pointing profile, and access — scaffolding is often needed for either job.

Rendering costs are well established. As an indicative guide:

indicative Ballpark figures for a through-coloured system on sound walls, including scaffolding.

When comparing, look at the long-term cost too: a through-coloured render doesn’t need routine painting, while a painted render needs repainting periodically. See our house rendering cost guide for the full picture.

How to assess your own brickwork

Walk round the house in daylight and look closely at each elevation.

Check the joints. Run a key or screwdriver along a few joints. If mortar crumbles out easily, or joints are recessed well behind the face of the bricks, they need re-pointing.

Check the bricks. Look for faces flaking away, cracked bricks and areas where the surface has crumbled. Isolated damage is repairable; widespread spalling suggests a bigger problem.

Check for cracks. Cracks running through bricks and joints, especially stepped cracks or cracks around windows, may indicate movement. These need investigating before either re-pointing or rendering.

Check inside. Damp patches on internal walls behind the brickwork you’re worried about help show whether water is getting in.

Check the mix. Note whether the house has extensions, repairs or filled openings in different brick — that’s the strongest aesthetic case for render.

Take photos as you go, including close-ups of the worst joints and bricks and a wider shot of each elevation. They’re useful to show a specialist, and they give you a record to compare against in a year or two if you decide to wait. A specialist survey will confirm what you’ve seen and identify anything you’ve missed, such as hairline cracks or damp at high level that are hard to spot from the ground.

Older houses: lime mortar and breathability

Houses built before cavity walls were common — most Victorian and Edwardian homes and some later ones — have solid walls built with soft lime mortar. These walls rely on being able to dry out, and the mortar is designed to be the “sacrificial” part of the wall: it’s softer than the bricks, so moisture and movement are taken up in the joints rather than damaging the bricks.

Re-pointing these walls in hard cement mortar is a common mistake on old houses. It traps moisture in the bricks, forcing it out through the brick faces instead of the joints, which causes spalling — the very damage that can later make people think they need to render. The right approach is to re-point in a suitable lime mortar.

The same principle applies to render on solid walls. If you render, use a breathable system — often lime on period houses — rather than a dense cement render. See our lime render cost guide.

If damp is the reason you’re asking

Many homeowners start looking at re-pointing or rendering because of damp. It’s worth being clear: neither is a cure for every kind of damp. Failing pointing can let rain into a wall, and re-pointing it can help. A weathered, porous wall on an exposed elevation may benefit from a breathable render. But damp from leaking gutters and downpipes, high ground levels against the wall, a bridged damp-proof course, plumbing leaks or condensation won’t be solved by either.

Find the cause first. Clear and repair gutters and downpipes, check ground levels outside, and look at ventilation inside. Then decide whether the wall itself needs re-pointing or rendering. A good specialist will look for these causes at the survey rather than assuming render is the answer.

What each job involves

Re-pointing starts with raking out the old mortar to a consistent depth — deep enough to give the new mortar a good key, but carefully, so the edges of the bricks aren’t damaged. Power tools are sometimes used, but on soft or historic brick, hand raking is safer. The joints are cleaned and dampened, then filled with fresh mortar in layers, and finished to a profile that matches the house — flush, bucket-handle, weatherstruck or recessed. Damaged bricks are cut out and replaced as the work goes. It’s skilled, patient work, and the finish of the joints makes a big difference to how the wall looks.

Rendering starts with scaffolding and preparation: cleaning, repairing any damaged areas, and removing anything that would stop the render bonding. Beads go on at corners, openings and the base. Then a base coat with reinforcing mesh, a primer where the system requires it, and the finish coat. Sills, fittings and junctions are made good at the end.

Both jobs need suitable weather — mortar and render shouldn’t be applied in frost, and both need protecting from heavy rain and fast drying while they cure.

What good and poor workmanship look like

Whichever route you choose, the result depends on the person doing it. Knowing what to look for helps you judge previous work, references and the finished job.

Poor re-pointing is easy to spot once you know the signs. Joints widened and brick arrises chipped where an angle grinder has been run carelessly along them. Mortar smeared across the brick faces. New mortar that’s visibly harder, greyer or a different colour from the original. Shallow “buttering” over old mortar that hasn’t been raked out properly, which tends to fall out within a few winters. A proud, ribbon-like strap joint on a house that never had one.

Good re-pointing looks as if it has always been there: consistent joint width, a profile matching the house, clean brick faces, and a mortar colour and texture that sit comfortably with the brick.

Poor rendering shows in wavy corners and reveals, render bridging the damp-proof course at the base of the wall, visible joins or patchy colour where work stopped mid-wall, and sills or fittings that throw water down the face. Good rendering has straight, crisp beads, a neat bellcast or base bead above the damp-proof course, work finished to natural breaks such as corners, and water directed clear of the wall.

Ask to see a job the specialist completed a few years ago, not just last month.

The exposed gable: a common special case

A typical situation where rendering beats re-pointing is the exposed side gable. On many semis and end terraces, the gable faces the prevailing wind and rain and takes far more weather than the sheltered front. Even with sound pointing, some brickwork on these walls absorbs enough rain to cause damp patches inside, especially on solid walls or where the bricks are soft.

Rendering that one elevation with a suitable, breathable system gives it a weather-resistant outer face while leaving the more visible elevations as brick. It’s a targeted, cost-effective approach. A specialist can tell you whether your gable is a candidate — and whether the problem is actually the brick and pointing, or something else such as a gutter or the verge of the roof.

Modern cavity-wall brick homes

On modern brick houses with cavity walls, the decision is mostly about appearance and condition rather than breathability. The bricks are usually hard and durable, and the pointing is often in reasonable shape for many years. If you’re considering render here, it’s usually because you want a different look, or because extensions and alterations have left the brickwork mismatched.

That makes the choice simpler. If you like the brick, keep it and re-point when needed. If you want a clean, contemporary finish or to unify a patchwork of bricks, a through-coloured render is a sound choice on a cavity wall. Our guides to silicone render and monocouche render explain two widely used systems.

Planning, conservation and the character of the street

This is one of the sharpest differences between the two options. Re-pointing in a matching mortar is a repair, and on an ordinary house it doesn’t normally need planning permission. Rendering a brick house is different. In England, permitted development rules allow cladding the outside of a house only where the materials are of similar appearance to those already used — and render over exposed brick plainly changes the appearance. Councils take a view case by case, so don’t assume rendering a brick house is automatically permitted.

Some situations are clear-cut. In a Conservation Area, National Park, National Landscape (formerly AONB) or the Broads, planning permission is needed before cladding the outside of a house with render. Listed buildings need listed building consent for works that affect their character. Article 4 directions can remove permitted development rights, and flats and maisonettes don’t have householder permitted development rights at all. Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland have their own rules. Check with your local planning authority before committing to render; a Lawful Development Certificate gives you certainty. Our guide to planning permission for rendering explains the test in more detail.

Even where permission isn’t an issue, think about the street. A rendered house in a row of matching brick can look striking or out of place, depending on the setting. On a street where houses already vary, render is less likely to jar.

Building Regulations: the hidden difference

In England, Approved Document L treats substantial work to the outer face of an external wall as renovating a “thermal element”. Where that work covers more than 50% of a wall’s surface, or more than 25% of the whole building envelope, the wall is normally expected to be upgraded thermally — so far as that is technically, functionally and economically feasible — and building control should be notified. The guidance is most often discussed for stripping and re-rendering, and a whole-elevation render job on bare brick can raise the same question, so ask your specialist and building control whether it applies to your walls.

Re-pointing doesn’t raise the question at all; it’s a repair to the existing wall. Rendering a whole elevation is a larger intervention, and on some houses the sensible response is to look at an insulated render system rather than a standard one. Traditional solid-walled buildings get special consideration, because adding the wrong insulation can create damp problems. Wales has its own Part L and Scotland its own standards. See our guide to building regulations for re-rendering and our comparison of EWI vs standard render, and always confirm with your building control body before work starts.

Re-pointing and rendering on the same house

The two aren’t mutually exclusive. Many houses benefit from re-pointing the elevations where the brick is attractive — often the front — and rendering the elevations where it isn’t, such as a weathered side gable or a rear wall with a mismatched extension.

The junction between rendered and brick elevations should fall at a natural break, usually a corner, with a neat stop bead, so the change looks deliberate. Our guide to the cost to render the front of a house covers part-rendering in more detail.

Three example scenarios

These illustrative examples show how the decision usually plays out.

A Victorian terrace with crumbling joints. The red brick is sound and attractive, but the mortar is recessed and sandy, and there’s some damp on the front wall. The street is all brick and in a conservation area. The right answer is almost certainly re-pointing in lime mortar, after checking gutters and downpipes for the source of the damp.

A post-war cavity-wall semi with a mismatched extension. The original brick is plain, the rear extension is in a different brick, and an old garage conversion has left a patch of newer brick at the front. The owners want a modern look. Rendering in a through-coloured system ties the house together, and the cavity walls make a modern render a straightforward choice.

An end terrace with a wet gable. The front brick is attractive and the pointing is sound, but the side gable faces the prevailing weather and lets damp through despite recent re-pointing. Re-pointing the front where needed and rendering the gable in a breathable system is a sensible combination.

What about painted brick?

Painted brick sits awkwardly between the two options. Re-pointing painted brick is possible, but the paint usually needs to be dealt with, and removing masonry paint from brick is slow and can damage the brick face. Repainting gives a fresh look but creates a repainting cycle, and some masonry paints trap moisture in older walls.

Rendering over painted brick is possible if the paint is removed or the surface properly prepared so the render bonds — our guide to rendering over a painted wall explains how. For many owners of painted brick houses who are tired of repainting, a through-coloured render is a practical way to end the cycle. A specialist will assess the paint and the brick beneath before recommending an approach.

How long each lasts

Good-quality pointing in a suitable mortar can last for decades, and lime pointing on an old house is designed to be renewed periodically as part of normal maintenance. A well-applied modern render system can also last for many years, while a painted render needs periodic repainting. In both cases, the quality of the work and the suitability of the materials for the wall matter more than anything else.

Questions to ask a specialist

When you get advice, ask: Are the bricks themselves sound, or is the problem only the joints? What type of mortar or render would you use, and why for this wall? Is the house solid-walled, and does that change your recommendation? Is there damp, and have you identified the cause? Would you treat every elevation the same way? Are there any planning restrictions I should check?

A good specialist will give you a straight answer, including when the answer is that you don’t need render at all. Our questions to ask a renderer guide covers the wider conversation.

When rendering might not be right for you

Rendering isn’t right if the brick is sound and attractive and the only problem is the pointing. It may not be appropriate if the house is listed or in a conservation area where brick is expected. It shouldn’t go on until any damp or structural problems are diagnosed. And on solid walls, it should only ever be a breathable system.

If you’re weighing up a different look on an already rendered or painted house, some homeowners also compare masonry wall coatings, a different product with its own strengths, worth considering on its merits.

Where render is the right call, SmartMatch™ weighs render-type experience, verified reviews, online reputation, insurance and accreditation to introduce you to one vetted local specialist for a free, no-obligation survey and quote. Our specialists take on projects from around £3,500, so for re-pointing alone a local bricklayer or pointing specialist is usually the right person to call. Browse every render system on our services page.