Collaboration 23 Traditional Lime Pointing

Exceptional quality and workmanship.
A true understanding of the needs of old and historic houses which are renovated to a very high standard.

Our house has been beautifully lime repointed and we have been delighted with the service from the whole team:-)

Mark Harris at C23 (Cambridge) was employed by my client to re-point a conservation area mid terrace in Cambridge.

The work was left incomplete with the scaffolding in place for nearly 3 months while my client went through cancer treatment, Mark made no attempt to make contact or complete the work.

After the client employed me as consultant to investigate excessive efflorescent in the pointed areas, we asked Mark to meet us to discuss and propose a timeline to finish the work, we were met with ignored emails and rude replies. His only suggestion being to remove the scaffolding which I could not allow until seeing a method statement for the completion of the work (A window to the rear required scaffolding access to complete).

Eventually, Mark removed the front scaffolding without permission and continued to ignore my emails and requests for a method statement.
Eventually, we were forced to withhold his retention and find another contractor to complete the work.

Collaboration 23 brought the life back into the front of our 17th Century house. The 20 meter or so frontage consisted of aged 2 inch Cambridge multi bricks (some of which had lost their faces) and lime mortar joints that had been badly attacked by masonry bees over hundreds of years. As they cleaned out the old joints the lime dust acted as a cleaner to the bricks below removing centuries of dirt and bringing back the original brick colours. Collaboration 23 replaced the damaged bricks, removed patches of previous cement repairs and placed many stainless steel bars into the joints to give strength to the wall where needed, before re-pointing in lime. The final result was stunning. The work was expected to take two months but ran on for another couple of weeks. Workers were skilled and took pride in their work.

Mark just completed re-pointing our house and did a brilliant job. The workmanship was first class and it was great to have someone so passionate about their craft. Mark and his team were also a pleasure to have around the house while working. They were friendly, respectful and tidy. My baby was due when Mark first came to quote, and he made a special effort to get the noisy part of the job out the way before the baby was delivered. After that, they turned up every morning as planned and got on with the job without disturbing us... which was very much appreciated with a newborn baby! I would just pop my head out the window once I was up to bring them a coffee and get an update on the work.

Also, even though the job turned out to be a bit more work than Mark estimated, he stuck to the original estimate and there were no extra charges.

We would highly recommend Collaboration 23 to anyone for the quality of work, professionalism and because they a lovely people!