Repointing Cost 2026: Brick and Stone Mortar Prices in Australia

Repointing usually costs between $70 and $180 per square metre of wall in Australia in 2026, depending on whether the bricklayer uses a modern cement-based mortar or a traditional lime mortar, and how carefully the old joints have to be raked out. Most owners are not repointing a whole house; a typical job covers the two or three walls that cop the worst weather and lands somewhere between $2,000 and $6,000.

Mortar is meant to be the sacrificial part of a brick wall. It is softer than the brick so that moisture and movement wear the joint rather than the brick face. After 50 to 100 years, the joints recess, crumble and let water in, and that is when repointing makes sense. Done properly, it adds decades to the wall. Done badly, with hard cement mortar in soft old bricks, it can speed up the damage it was meant to fix. The prices here are indicative and include GST. Get at least three written quotes, ideally from bricklayers who can show you photos of similar work.

Repointing, tuckpointing and re-mortaring: what you are paying for

These words get mixed up, and quotes can differ by thousands depending on which one is meant.

• Repointing means raking out the damaged mortar to a set depth, usually around 15 to 20 mm or about twice the joint width, then packing in new mortar and finishing the joint to match the existing profile.
• Tuckpointing is a decorative technique found on many Victorian and Federation homes, particularly in Melbourne, Sydney and Adelaide. The joint is filled with mortar coloured to match the brick, then a thin raised line of contrasting lime putty, often white or black, is applied to make the brickwork look perfectly regular. It is slow, skilled work.
• Re-bedding or rebuilding is needed when bricks themselves are loose, cracked or bowing out. That is beyond repointing and may point to a structural issue.

Repointing prices by job type

Small jobs cost more per square metre because a bricklayer still has to mix mortar, set up and clean up whether the job is 3 m² or 30 m². Many will not take on a job under about half a day, so expect a minimum charge in the $400 to $700 range.

Whole-wall and whole-house estimates

To estimate your own job, work out the wall area that needs doing, subtract large windows and doors, and multiply by the rate. A single-storey wall 12 metres long and 2.7 metres high is about 32 m², or roughly 26 m² once windows are taken out.

Two-storey work adds scaffolding, typically $1,500 to $5,000 for the walls being repointed, depending on height, length and hire period.

What decides the price

Mortar type

This is the big one. Houses built before roughly the 1940s were laid in lime mortar, which is soft, breathable and flexible. Modern mortar is cement-based and much harder. Putting hard cement mortar into an old wall of soft bricks traps moisture in the brick and makes the brick face the weakest point, so the brick spalls and crumbles instead of the joint. A good heritage bricklayer will match the original mix, often a hot or hydraulic lime mortar, which takes longer to mix, cure and finish. That is why lime work costs more.

How the old mortar is removed

On hard modern bricks, a bricklayer can rake joints with a grinder and a narrow diamond blade or a dedicated mortar raking tool, which is fast. On soft heritage bricks or narrow joints, careful bricklayers rake by hand with a plugging chisel to avoid widening the joints and chipping arrises, the brick edges. Hand raking can double the labour time.

Joint profile

Flush, weatherstruck, ironed (concave), raked and tuckpointed joints all take different time. Matching an unusual existing profile, so new work blends in, is slower than a simple ironed joint.

Colour matching

New mortar dries lighter or darker than it looks wet. For street-facing walls, a good bricklayer makes test panels with different sand and oxide mixes and lets them dry before starting. Some heritage specialists send a sample for mortar analysis. Allow $150 to $400 for testing and sample panels on heritage jobs.

Brick condition

Replacing a handful of cracked or spalled bricks is common. Expect $25 to $60 per brick to cut out and replace, plus the cost of sourcing second-hand bricks to match. Badly eroded walls may also need a lime-based repair mortar on the brick faces.

Access and height

Single-storey walls are done from trestles or a mobile tower. Second-storey walls, chimneys and walls on boundaries with tight access need scaffolding, which can add more than the repointing itself on a small job.

Clean-down

Mortar smears and dust need cleaning off once the joints have cured. Harsh hydrochloric acid washes can burn and stain brickwork, particularly light-coloured and heritage bricks. Gentle cleaning with water and a soft brush, or a mild proprietary cleaner, takes longer but is safer.

Repointing prices by city

The table assumes about 30 m² of cement-mortar repointing on a single-storey wall with normal access. Heritage lime work in each city typically costs 50 to 80 percent more.

Bricklayers generally charge around $70 to $110 per hour or $600 to $900 per day. Heritage stonemasons and specialist tuckpointers sit higher, often $90 to $140 per hour.

Three repointing jobs, broken down

All amounts include GST.

Federation cottage in Marrickville, NSW

A 1910s double-brick cottage with soft red face bricks and badly recessed lime mortar on the front and the west side wall. About 60 m² of wall after deducting windows. Single storey, owner wants lime mortar to protect the bricks.

1960s brick veneer in Reservoir, VIC

A post-war brick veneer with hard clay bricks. The south and west walls have sandy, crumbling joints, especially below the windows. About 30 m² in cement-lime mortar.

Sandstone villa in Unley, SA

A late 1800s villa with a sandstone front, brick quoins and a chimney with loose mortar near the top. About 25 m² of stone wall plus one chimney.

In each case the labour is most of the bill. Mortar materials are cheap; a skilled worker's time with a chisel and a pointing iron is not.

Signs your brickwork needs repointing

• Joints have recessed more than a few millimetres behind the brick face.
• Mortar crumbles into sand when you scratch it with a key or screwdriver.
• There are gaps you can see light or daylight through, often around windows and under sills.
• Damp patches, bubbling paint or salt staining appear on inside walls after rain.
• Plants, moss or weeds are growing out of joints.
• Bricks are starting to spall, with faces flaking off, which often means moisture is trapped.

Stepped cracks running diagonally through several courses, bricks moving, or walls leaning are different. Those can be signs of footing movement, failing wall ties or tree roots, and repointing over them only hides the symptom. Get advice first. Our structural engineer cost guide explains what an assessment costs, and a building inspection is a cheaper first step if you are not sure what you are looking at.

Licences and approvals

Repointing counts as residential building work in most states once it passes a value threshold, and bricklaying is a licensed trade in some states.

• NSW: bricklaying work worth more than $5,000, including labour and materials, needs a licensed contractor. Check the licence on the NSW Fair Trading register.
• Queensland: bricklaying and blocklaying is a QBCC licence class, and work over the QBCC threshold of $3,300 needs a licensed contractor. Check the register on the QBCC website.
• Victoria: domestic building work above a set value needs a registered builder; repointing is usually below that on a single wall but can exceed it on a whole house. Check the current threshold with the Building and Plumbing Commission (formerly the VBA).
• WA, SA, TAS, ACT and NT: check with Building and Energy, Consumer and Business Services, CBOS, Access Canberra or the NT Building Practitioners Board.

Council approval is not normally needed for like-for-like repointing. The exception is heritage. If your home is heritage-listed or in a heritage conservation area, council may need to approve the mortar type, colour and joint profile, especially on the street facade. Councils with large heritage areas usually prefer lime mortar on pre-1940s buildings. Ask the council's heritage adviser before work starts, since many offer free advice.

Silica dust and site safety

Raking out old mortar with a grinder releases respirable crystalline silica, the dust that causes silicosis. Work health and safety laws require controls when cutting or grinding mortar and masonry, such as on-tool dust extraction with an industrial vacuum, water suppression and a properly fitted respirator. Dry cutting with a grinder and no extraction is not acceptable on a professional job. Safe Work Australia explains the risks on its crystalline silica page.

For you, this means keeping windows shut on the side being raked, keeping kids and pets away, and asking the bricklayer how they control dust. A good one will have an answer ready. Scaffolding over four metres must be erected by a licensed scaffolder, and anyone working at height should be using a stable platform, not a ladder.

Can you repoint brickwork yourself?

A small garden wall or a few joints around a tap are realistic DIY jobs. The tools cost $100 to $300: a plugging chisel, club hammer, pointing trowel, jointing iron, hawk, a stiff brush and mortar. A bag of premixed mortar or lime and sand costs very little.

Where DIY goes wrong:

• Using a hard cement mix in soft old bricks, which damages the bricks over time.
• Not raking deep enough, so the new mortar falls out within a couple of years.
• Over-cutting with a grinder, which widens joints and chips brick edges for good.
• Smearing mortar across the brick faces, which stains and is hard to clean.
• Generating silica dust without extraction or a respirator.

On a street-facing wall or anything heritage, pay a specialist. Poor repointing is obvious from the footpath and expensive to undo.

Repoint, render or leave it?

Some owners consider rendering over tired brickwork instead of repointing. Render covers the joints, changes the look completely and can cost a similar amount per square metre. On a heritage home, rendering face brick is usually a mistake, and in a conservation area it may not be allowed. On a plain 1970s brick veneer where the owner wants a modern look, it can make sense. Our rendering cost guide compares the options.

If the mortar is a bit weathered but not crumbling and there is no damp inside, it is often fine to leave it and check again in a few years. Repointing perfectly sound mortar is money spent for no benefit.

How long repointing lasts

Well-matched lime pointing on a heritage wall can last 30 to 50 years or more. Cement-based pointing on hard modern bricks lasts at least as long. The walls that need repointing soonest are the ones that get the weather: west-facing walls in the southern states, walls near leaking downpipes or garden sprinklers, and the lower courses where splashback keeps the bricks wet.

Fixing the water source is part of the job. Repointing a wall that keeps getting soaked by a broken downpipe, or where garden beds are piled up above the damp-proof course, will only buy a few years.

Spending less without a worse result

• Prioritise the weather walls. Repoint the west and south walls and the areas under windows first. The sheltered walls under the eaves often have years left in them.
• Combine with other scaffold work. If you are painting eaves, fixing gutters or repairing the roof, schedule the second-storey repointing at the same time so you only pay for scaffolding once.
• Keep your old bricks. If you are removing a garden wall or a chimney breast, stack the bricks. Matching second-hand bricks are often the hardest and most expensive part of a heritage repair.
• Book in mild weather. Spring and autumn suit lime mortar best, and a bricklayer who does not have to tent walls against rain or heat works faster.
• Do the prep yourself. Clearing creepers off the walls, cutting back shrubs and moving pots and furniture saves paid hours.

What the job looks like on site

Expect the bricklayer to start with a short walk around and a sample panel, then to work wall by wall: rake out a section, brush and dampen the joints, pack in mortar in layers, and finish the profile once the mortar has firmed up to the right point. Lime mortar needs to be kept damp for several days as it cures, so you may see hessian or plastic sheeting hung over finished walls. The noisy, dusty part is the raking; the pointing itself is quiet.

Quotes, questions and red flags

A solid written quote for repointing should cover:

• The walls included and the approximate area in square metres
• The mortar type and mix, for example a lime and sand ratio, and why it suits your bricks
• How the old mortar will be raked out and to what depth
• The joint profile to be matched
• Whether sample panels and colour matching are included
• Brick replacement rates, scaffolding, clean-down and disposal
• Licence number where required, ABN, public liability insurance and a workmanship warranty

Questions worth asking: Can I see photos of heritage work you have done? How do you control silica dust? What do you do if you find cracked bricks or failed wall ties? Red flags include a quote with no mortar specification, a plan to grind out soft heritage joints at speed, a promise to "seal" the bricks with a coating afterwards, cash-only pricing, and a large deposit for a job that has not started.

Getting help with the labour side through Yakka

The skilled part of repointing belongs to a bricklayer or heritage tradesperson, and Yakka Labour does not change that. The platform is useful for the labour around the job: a labourer to carry scaffolding planks and materials down a narrow side passage, mix mortar under the bricklayer's direction, clean up dust and offcuts each day, or clear garden beds and move pot plants away from the walls before work begins. Our labourer day rate guide shows what that kind of help typically costs.

You can also browse bricklayers near you or stonemasons for sandstone and bluestone work, and check their experience with your type of brick before you ask for a quote.