We provide essential safety equipment to ensure high intensity brick raking can be undertaken free of dust. This includes dustless and dust-free brick raking guards and cowls, professional dust extractors and construction specification vacuums, pre-separators and waste collection systems, diamond raking blades and tungsten carbide mortar rakes in various diameters and widths. All can be purchased individually. We also supply ready-to-work raking and repointing packages, such as our Professional Brick Raking Package and the Professional Brick Raking and Pointing Package, which additionally includes the Quikpoint Mortar Pointing System. Sunrise Tools are the primary European Distributor for the Quikpoint Mortar Pointing Gun and the Quikpave Lightning Grouter; we hold a full spares inventory for all Quikpoint products. For specialist brickwork maintenance, we supply the Arbortech Allsaw plunge cutting system and stock Arbortech Allsaw replacement blades. All of our Brick Raking and Repointing equipment can be purchased online.
When raking and grinding out mortar joints, removing dust at source creates a healthier and safer working environment, greatly reduces clean-up costs and minimises disruption and inconvenience for adjacent trades or the local population. It also extends power tool life by minimising the ingestion of dust, which will otherwise damage motors and switches.
Which is faster, a Mortar Rake or a Diamond Blade?
Firstly, a Rake is best suited to soft mortar whereas a Blade will tackle all forms of mortar. Generally speaking, a Blade will be more productive as there is usually a larger area of cutting face in contact with the mortar. But a Mortar Rake will be best suited where the joint is irregular (it can be steered more easily) and of course is the best solution on brick perps. So selection needs to consider not just speed of working.
Which is the best mortar removal tool?
Assuming you are not doing the work by hand, the two most popular methods are a diamond raking blade or a tungsten mortar rake, fitted to an angle grinder with a dust and depth control facility. The diamond blade will work best on all mortar strengths and will cut faster in most situations. So for long straight joints it will always win. The mortar rake is best suited to softer mortars. It is superior where you need to preserve uneven joints and is the only viable solution on irregular joints such as stonework. The mortar rake is also a safer option for brick perps. A third option, used primarily on specialist works, is a reciprocating masonry saw such as the Arbortech.
With the dust guard fitted I can’t see the mortar rake?
By necessity, when a dust control attachment is used, you lose sight of the mortar rake or diamond raking blade, although without dust control, visibility is very limited due to the large volumes of dust created. If we accept that dust control is required, then the attachments used with either method have sufficient guide marks and sight lines such that a competent operator will quickly become familiar with their safe and effective use. In addition, a dust control attachment usually includes a depth control facility, which ensures the required depth of joint is consistently achieved. In practice, any initial hesitancy is quickly overcome and the benefits of faster, cleaner working to the correct specification are there to be had.
How deep should I rake out the mortar joints?
For general repointing, it is recommended that as a minimum, old mortar joints should be raked out to a depth equal to twice their height – so if the joint is 10 mm tall, rake it to a minimum depth of 20 mm. Using the small angle grinders favoured for this work, depths up to 25 mm with either a mortar rake or a diamond raking blade are easily achieved. For depths up to 60 mm, extra length mortar rakes are favoured. Where a complete joint is being removed (more typically a complete brick is being removed for replacement) a masonry plunge saw such as the Arbortech is the appropriate tool.
