Lost Marble Building Conservation

15/11/2024

Took a little wander around the Victorian and Georgian parts of Berkhamsted today. Once upon a time there were whole streets that were tuckpointed. They would have looked very grand indeed.

I couldn’t help but take some snaps. I can just imagine whole rows of terraces looking mighty sharp - probably not feasible these days but a nice idea…..maybe have a closer look at your own house and chat to you neighbour, then give me a call…😉

The last pic - an ugly, grey, weather struck cement pointing that has no place on a historic building (or anywhere in fact, other than a skip). When you know what it should look like it’s hard to be sympathetic towards it and who ever did it (in 1980s probably).

Currently in Highfield Road - come and say hi and see what a Victorian house minus its masonry paint.

09/11/2024

If you’re got something that looks like this under your eaves, window cills or in another sheltered place on the front of your house, then it used to be tuck pointed.

In my home town of Tring we’ve got lots of remnants of this on period properties - from terraced workers cottages to grand buildings on the high street.

If you’d like the tuck pointing reinstating on your house please drop me a line.

09/11/2024

With Heritage House Building Conservation – I just got recognised as one of their top fans! 🎉

03/11/2024

We’re nearing completion over in old town Welwyn where we’ve removed all the unsightly cement pointing that was creating damp issues, repointed all the brick work with a bespoke hot-lime mortar and tuck pointed the arches.

Can’t wait for the scaffold to come down to get the full effect! Watch this space….

24/10/2024

A spot of traditional tuck pointing over in Welwyn village… plenty of evidence to suggest that these window arches were originally tuck pointed back in the Georgian days.

Pretty pleased with the outcome so far…

Tuck pointing is a kind of fakery where a coloured mortar is used and a thin ribbon of lime to imply a superior quality of brickwork or even gauged brickwork.

If you look under the eaves or window sills of Victorian cottages (especially in Tring where I live) you’ll often see the remnants of this.

We’ve removed all the nasty cement pointing that was done so badly and was causing massive damp issues and replaced it with a bespoke hot lime mortar to match the original bedding mortar.

10/09/2024

Still no joy with sharing from on Instagram to this page so I’ll probably delete it soon.

Sorry if you’ve enjoyed following Lost Marble on Facebook but I just don’t have the time to post on individual pages any more. If only I had an old fashioned web site…🤦‍♂️

See you over on Instagram. 🍻

16/06/2024

Happy Father’s Day to all you fathers out there. Here’s ours…

09/06/2024

For some reason my Instagram posts are duplicated on my personal fb page and not this one…no idea why, but bear with me and I’ll get my IT dept to look into it…

In the meantime here’s a picture of the current job in Great Horwood, Bucks - removed paint with the DOFF and now it’s all ready for limewashing tomorrow…

13/05/2024

Not sure why instagram has been linking up with my private page rather than Lost Marble….maybe it’s called progress? 🤦‍♂️

Maybe take a trip to Instagram to see what we’ve been up to recently. 🍻

28/02/2024

The new (ok, so not so new) method of Facebook interaction - delete, delete, delete, delete, delete….oh that looks nice - ah but it’s just AI…delete, delete, delete, delete…etc 🤦‍♂️ someone please write something original and humerous! Meanwhile I’ll just keep deleting all the fake “abandoned” castles and weird nature stuff delete delete delete….🤦‍♂️

28/02/2024

26/02/2024

Trying to get ahead of the game so far - with a packed year ahead we have mostly been demolishing stuff!

When walls have been tanked, drilled and injected, cement pointed, cement rendered, gypsum plastered, wall papered and painted it’s not gonna dry out over night…

So we’re removing the moisture trapping barriers as gently as we can so that the walls are dry enough to be lime plastered later in the year (or maybe next year…🤷‍♂️)

What was a 1980s exposed brick feature wall with cement pointing that got tanked and drilled to “cure the damp” is now quite naked and enjoying the sensation of fresh air.

Still no home for the found 1920s fireplace though - do you want it? (Previous post)