Mortar pointing gun

[Gyn_Paul]

On an American  DIY show  ("This Old House") a while back  I saw a device which I've searched  ever since.

It was an air-powered  mortar gun. Basically it looked like a combination of one of those celulose paint sprayers - the ones with the reservoir on the top - and a heavy-duty mastic gun. The motar went in the top (obviously) and I guess some sort of worm screw delivered the mixture to the front where there was a sort of industrial scale icing nozzle.

You raked and cleaned the joints, wet them, then simply piped the pointing mixture straight in, and smoothed off the joint. Nothing wasted; nothing on the floor.

As someone who - when faced with a bucket of mortar and a wall to be pointed - singularly lacks the ability to show it who's boss, it sounded like the ideal tool for me.

Anyone seen one here in France?

[Jonzjob]

I don't know about the gun, but I have seen the same sort of thing using a bit of kit like an icing bag. A large strong conical plastic bag that you put plasitsed morter in and just sqirt it in the gap. If you have an Axminster Power Tools catalog it's on page 13-3 or you will be able to find it on their web site www.axminster.co.uk . I have used them for years and the kit they sell is good as well as that they have a VERY helpful tech help line. They also post to France!!! I just love looking through their catalog, which they will send you if you ask...

Good luck,

John.

[RogerW]

Although you can probably get them cheaper elsewhere, they are

available from QVC in the UK. They will ship to France, but I think you

have to call their call centre rather than order on the website.

Go to www.qvcuk.com and typw 'durgun' into the search box.

Hope this helps

Roger.

[Smiley]

I have just been having discussions with a friend of mine in Northern france about this very subject. He is having to carry out extensive pointing and I am just in the process of posting him a gun out. It is about twice the size of a silicone gun and comprises of a short section of pipe and 2 nozzles, one small and one large. I have found that the tube is simply a piece of plastic down-pipe so if you damage it it's easy to replace. They are available from Builders merchants in the UK and are also used to apply expansion joints to buildings ( the purpose I bought this one for )  Screwfix.com do a similar but smaller tool  - item no.45910

Let me know if you need more help locating one.

[Bassman]

Hi Gyn_Paul found this on a Google

 

http://www.refina.co.uk/pdf_spray_Sept05/p78_mortarguns.pdf

 

http://www.refina.co.uk/spray.php

This????

 

http://www.quikpoint.com/ 

[Catalpa]

My husband gave me the Axminster model just the other day. [Www] I should be using it later this week, weather permitting, so I'll be able to report on the suitability for use by this newcomer in the dark art of pointing.

[Alan Zoff]

Who said romance was dead?  Was it your birthday, wedding anniversary, perhaps?

If you want something to practice on before tackling your house, I have about 80 metres of garden wall which seems to be held together by - well, nothing, as far as I can see! 

One of these guns looks a good investment, compared with the tedious bucket and trowel method which in my case oftens means giving the wall a light and patchy rendering....

[Catalpa]

Nah, just one of those spontaneous "I thought of you today, darling" surprise gifts. Bless. [:P]

[Gyn_Paul]

[quote user="catalpa"]Nah, just one of those spontaneous "I thought of you today, darling" surprise gifts. Bless. [:P][/quote]

Thanks guys for all the suggestions: I'd googled it before but got no response (finger trouble probably) The 'quickpoint' looks good (attaches to the front of a standard 3/8" chuck drill) if I can get them to mail to France.

If I'd presented my o/h with a pointing tool as a birthday gift I'd be writing this from a cumfy bed in Gueret CMU, but just on a spontanious basis I'd probably get away with it !

p

[Alcazar]

The American one looks good, but I'd be worried on two counts:

1. how much to get it here/to France?

2. and very worried about using it for very long, complete with a full load of mortar, AND a drill. Operator fatigue, anyone? Unless, of course, the rest of you have forearms like Popeye?

Alcazar

[Gyn_Paul]

[quote user="Alcazar"]....

Unless, of course, the rest of you have forearms like Popeye?

Alcazar

[/quote]

Yes but without the tattoos !

(If you'd spent the last couple of weeks heaving back on a 4-HP 6-blade cultivator plodding its way through miles of turf, YOU'D have Popeye's forearms too.)

[Alcazar]

I cut 2000 sq m of grass with a 6hp mower, twice, while I was last out there. Ate like a horse, drank like a fish, but when I got home I'd dropped 8 lbs!

Alcazar

[Jonzjob]

Blimey Alcazar, eating grass and drinking water, I'm not nsurprised that you lost waite??????

John.

[Alcazar]

[quote user="Jonzjob"]

Blimey Alcazar, eating grass and drinking water, I'm not nsurprised that you lost waite??????

John.

[/quote]

Ho! Ho! Sigh.

Alcazar[:D]

[Brilec]

Saw a complete barn done in three days when I was over last time. They removed the old loose mortar with a pressure washer, left it over the weekend.

On monday morning turned up with this power sprayer, and sprayed new mortar over the whole thing. Then just went round quickly with a trowel to neaten up. Next day they washed it all down to clean up the stones, and brushed the surface. Then took down the scaffolding.

 

QED. and no need for Popeye.

[Jonzjob]

That sounds like a 'crepi' sprayer. I watched our next door neighbour's house get that treatment and was VERY glad the wind was blowing away from us!! Otherwise we would probably have the only Citroen C8 (C for crepi) in France? When they did our house they didn't bother with the light trowling after, they just left it very spikey. It would be an interesting finish for the walls of a squash court....

John.

[Ty Korrigan]

Alcazar... my 'only' mower is 6hp and every day I cut more than an acre of grass so toughen up man!

Anyway... now I have 'dissed the weed'....

This week amoungst other things....

I am actually pointing up a barn whose walls are 90m2 in total using a lime mortar. I have 'considered' using a hired machine to spray the mortar into the joints and simply brush off the next day with a  big stiff wire brush but to do this alone is also hard work.

 Instead I am plodding along by hand throwing the mortar into the joints then rendering over the stone work effectively hiding the stone beneath a thin layer of mortar before brushing off the following day. This gives a 'buttered look' to the stone work.

Time per m2 to rake out 'clay' mortar and apply mix whilst working alone is around 5 hours per 10m2 for which I charge my client 150euros  per 10m2 + materials.

 Brushing off is included.

I remember when I started offering this service how hard it was on the arms but practise makes perfect. Also the old cement rich mortar is a nightmare to pick out of joints.

 I certainly would never go down the route of a stupid toy gun gimmic as I have seen these things cost time and money with the added minus that you learn nothing using them.

 So there....

 

 

[Gyn_Paul]

[quote user="Ty Korrigan"]Alcazar... my 'only' mower is 6hp and every day I cut more than an acre of grass so toughen up man!

Anyway... now I have 'dissed the weed'....

This week amoungst other things....

I am actually pointing up a barn whose walls are 90m2 in total using a lime mortar. I have 'considered' using a hired machine to spray the mortar into the joints and simply brush off the next day with a  big stiff wire brush but to do this alone is also hard work.

 Instead I am plodding along by hand throwing the mortar into the joints then rendering over the stone work effectively hiding the stone beneath a thin layer of mortar before brushing off the following day. This gives a 'buttered look' to the stone work.

Time per m2 to rake out 'clay' mortar and apply mix whilst working alone is around 5 hours per 10m2 for which I charge my client 150euros  per 10m2 + materials.

 Brushing off is included.

I remember when I started offering this service how hard it was on the arms but practise makes perfect. Also the old cement rich mortar is a nightmare to pick out of joints.

 I certainly would never go down the route of a stupid toy gun gimmic as I have seen these things cost time and money with the added minus that you learn nothing using them.

 So there....

 

 

[/quote]

My feeling on this, Ty, is that - rather like plastering - by the time I'd got to the end of the job I would have FINALLY showed it who's boss and acquired another skill. A skill I would now not need as I've no intention of doing up ANOTHER barn. So a tool which saves time, mortar, and patience is OK by me. Added to which I know I would look at the mess I'd made of the first 20 sqm while I was learning and be desparate to rake it all out and start again. But I've got 6 rooms to plasterboard and joint, miles of wiring and plumbing to do, 16 windows to put in and furniture to build. And all the time there's the tyrany of grass as 2 hectaires relentlessly grows.

I've also got 150m of decking to install on 1 metre framing and a balcony to construct, and - guess what? I'm going to get myself a framing nail gun. Despite already knowing how to use a hammer!

p

[Ty Korrigan]

You are right of course...

 I see where I started my placo joints and where I finished...

Also we used a nail gun for the roof, saved loads of time and energy!

 Back to the grass now the dew has lifted...

[Fridgeman]

Hi Paul

I'm with you, life is difficult enough, why not make it easy and I noticed Ty did succumb,  thankfully I do not have as much to do as you, but I will be looking at the mortar gun even though I can throw mortar at a wall successfully.

All the best

 

Stephen

[Dave&Olive]

hi

 ok    mortar pointing guns...!!!!!  total waste of time and money.... full stop !!

         the point of re-pointing  is to replace the damaged mortar ,caused by rain and frost. a pointing gun  will give a good cosmetic finnsh , but the joint will not be fully sealed ( you can only achive this by pushing in the new motar into the joint so it bonds with the old brickwork/stone ). these guns just lay a bed of mix in the joint with gaps that will trap water behind them , they will look good for a few years then the water /frost  will start to do more dammage than if you had just left them alone .

     if you are going to use this method make sure you go over the joint after with a pointing bar to push in the mix ... and that makes a mockery of useing one!!!!!

                    dave

[Alan Zoff]

I can see your point, Dave, but I quite like the idea of being able to run a thick bead of mortar along the joint before pressing it in with the old bucket handle. It's the getting it in the gap without tedious tooing and froing with trowel and bucket - and dropping half of it down the brickwork - that I have most trouble with.

[Gyn_Paul]

[quote user="Alan Zoff"]I can see your point, Dave, but I quite like the idea of being able to run a thick bead of mortar along the joint before pressing it in with the old bucket handle. It's the getting it in the gap without tedious tooing and froing with trowel and bucket - and dropping half of it down the brickwork - that I have most trouble with.[/quote]

Exactly ! I'm quite confident I can form and shape the motar bead so that it makes a proper water-tight seal between the stones, but only once I've delivered it FIRMLY into the BACK of the rakes-out joint. It's the eternal fighting with gravity which is determined to ensure most of the mix goes into the gap and then promptly falls out out again and disappears into the weeds at the bottom of the wall. Or falls off the trowel while being offered up to the gap. 

If I could lay the wall down flat on the ground and point it there, even I wouldn't need anything but a small trowel and an old bucket handle !

[Catalpa]

Yep, I'm with you two (Alan and G_P). I haven't got the mortar pointing gun necessarily to do the job faster; it is - I hope - to enable me to do as thorough and effective a job as possible without wasting large quantities of mortar. I've never pointed before (though understand what I must achieve) but I don't want to half-do the job. Indeed, eventual moisture ingress at the back of my walk-in wardrobe will seriously displease me.[6] Talk about motivation! If the m-p gun enables me to do a better job first time of trying, then it's a good choice for me.

Of course, having had gales and driving rain for the past 6 days, my foray into the thrills (and spills [:P]) of pointing will have to wait another week.