Stone Cross Farm, Rye

The farmhouse at Stone Cross had last been pointed in 1978 with ordinary Portland cement. By 2024, frost cycling had delaminated the mortar from the brick at every joint, and several window head bricks had spalled through to the core. The owners contacted us after a chartered surveyor's report flagged the risk to the structural integrity of the first-floor window openings.

We raked out 180 linear metres of cement pointing by hand using fine chisels — power tools damage the arrises of historic bricks. The new mortar is NHL 3.5 hot-mixed lime with a sharp sand matched to samples taken from a surviving unpointed section behind a chimney breast. The Sussex bond pattern alternates headers and stretchers in a regional rhythm that pre-dates the more familiar Flemish bond; keeping the pattern faithful was a point of pride for the crew.

The two window heads were dismantled course by course, salvaged bricks catalogued, and rebuilt with lime putty and rubbed faces. Where original bricks were too damaged, we matched replacements from our reclaim stock — all hand-made, all fired before 1880.