Age and type of house
Hard cement strap pointing sits over soft brick on a terrace. Has the survey told you to hack it off, or only recorded that the pointing is cement?
Only recorded. Hard cement strap pointing over soft brick on this terrace has been written down as cement. The survey has not told you to hack it off. Strap pointing is a smear of hard mortar across the joint and onto the face. The visit names that material. It does not set a method for taking it off, and it does not say every joint must come out. Soft brick and a hard cement face are a mismatch the surveyor could see. Removal, if anyone advises it, is a later specification, not a sentence the report has already given you.
Last reviewed 24 October 2026. Written for buyers in England and Wales unless this answer says otherwise. No named surveyor has signed this page. It is general guidance, not a report on your house, and not legal advice.
What is the fuller explanation?
Victorian and Edwardian terraces were often built in soft stock brick with lime mortar that lets moisture leave through the joint. A later cement strap sits harder than that brick. Water then stays in the face and the arrises break, while the cement remains. The survey can say the pointing is cement and the brick is soft. That observation is not a works order. Hacking cement off a soft face can damage the brick if it is done as a guess, and the report has not instructed that.
Ask the surveyor to confirm the words are a record of cement strap pointing, not an instruction to remove it. If the faces are already spalling, a bricklayer used to soft brick can say, in writing, what should happen to these joints and what should be left. Pass that note to the solicitor with the survey, and do not tell a lender that the report has ordered the pointing to be hacked off.
What should you ask your surveyor?
- Did you record the pointing as cement strap, rather than order it hacked off?
- Which elevations show that cement on soft brick?
- Is any spalling of the face written separately from the pointing material?
What are the typical next steps?
- Read the note as a record that the pointing is cement.
- Do not treat the survey as an instruction to hack the strap off.
- If the faces are failing, get a written specification from a bricklayer.
Costs vary with the building and with who you instruct. Where this page does not cite a published figure, ask the surveyor, a relevant specialist, or your solicitor for a written quote. Do not treat a forum average as the price.
Also asked about this
If a few bricks have already lost their faces, has removal been ordered?
Not by the survey. Lost faces show the mismatch is already marking the wall. They do not turn the report into an instruction to hack the cement off, and no method was specified. That is as far as the recorded facts about the cement strap pointing can be taken.
Does lime mortar elsewhere on the terrace change this note?
Only as context. Lime on another bay shows the house was not all cement. The finding on this wall is still that the strap pointing here is cement, which the survey recorded and did not tell you to hack off.