Our house is around a year old, and we've just had a Sharp and Howells report confirm what we've thought for a while - our mortar fails to meet the standards. The mortar is quite soft, and it has resulted in our rolled finish being very pitted and also stained from the bricks (which is another issue). If you run your finger across the mortar the sand disintegrates.
The 2 main issues in the report are that too much sand was used in the mortar mix, and too much acid was used in the clean.
Here is the analysis of the mortar:
And here are some examples of what the mortar looks like:
So the recommended fixes by Sharp and Howells are to either:
1. Spray on a chemical hardener (this is the company they want to use: http://www.mortarmend.com.au/ ) and have Sharp and Howells then run the tests again and sign off that it has been rectified, and then have a company like NawKaw come and fix up the colour on the entire house so it is consistent.
2. Rake the mortar out to 25mm and then repoint.
The builder is wanting to do option 1 as they think raking/repointing is going to cause more issues with sandblasting and chipped bricks etc, but we're thinking that the builder is just wanting to do option 1 as it may be cheaper for them.
I can't find any reviews online for http://www.mortarmend.com.au/ so we're weary about saying yes to it. Does anyone have any experience in this area? We've already moved into the house so it's not like we can withhold final payment or anything like that. We just want the mortar to be like what it should have been in the first place. The builder is saying that if we choose to go with repointing they are going to make us sign something that voids them of any responsibility to the bricks/windows/basically anything around the house, including our neighbours houses (they say repointing will result in sandblasting to windows etc).
Any help or advice from anyone who has been through this would be much appreciated