Restoration masonry · Mimms Stow · drawn, matched and archived, since 1991
Every wall leaves here with a paper trail.
Arris & Archive restores brick and stone the registrar’s way — the elevation drawn before it is touched, the mortar chip matched before it is mixed, the salvage brick approved wet in daylight before a single unit is bedded. Lime where the wall wants lime; anchors where the building asks for stone.
(555) 907-3344 · archive@arrisandarchive.example · 1,530 elevations drawn, restored and filed
Services & rates
The rates — before anything else
Quoted off the measured drawing and held sixty days. Drawing, lime, anchors, scaffolding and the archived record are inside the number — the only extra is salvage brick or stone we must buy, quoted per thousand before you approve a single unit.
Lime repointing$18–$24/sq ft
hand-raked joints · NHL 3.5 in the field, NHL 5 at copings
Stone repair & Dutchmen$26/sq ft
weathered arris cut back, matched inserts bedded in lime
Anchored stone veneer$35/sq ft
316 stainless Z-anchors at 16 in o.c. · flashed and wept
Arch rebuild on centeringfrom $1,950
voussoirs numbered · keystone set last · ring closed before striking
Hearth in graded firebrickfrom $2,450
moderate- or high-duty to the drawing · cast crown
What we do
Three crafts, each with its file
The drawing before the chisel
The elevation is drawn course by course — every joint, every weathered arris, every previous repair called out — and the drawing is what we price from. Nothing on the page can become an extra, because you have already seen every line it pays for. The drawing is yours to keep, and so is the copy we file.
Repointing in matched lime
Joints raked by hand to twice their width — never ground — then flushed full in two passes with natural hydraulic lime matched to the chip from your wall. NHL 3.5 in the field, NHL 5 at parapets and copings. Struck to the profile the original mason chose, read from the elevation before we mix.
Salvage, approved in daylight
Era-matched brick from two salvage yards and standing yard stock, and stone from three quarries — laid out dry beside your wall, wetted, and approved by you in daylight before a single unit is bedded. If the match reads wrong at noon, it never gets mortared at two.
Their archive entry for our church is a proper document — courses drawn, chips labelled, the lime named and its reason given. I have filed worse from conservation officers, and I have said so at the visitation.
How it goes
Drawing to archive
The same sequence on every job — the only variable is your project.
Visit one
The measured drawing
The elevation is photographed, measured and drawn; a mortar chip leaves an inconspicuous joint and is matched against the archive. You receive the drawing, a written square-foot number held sixty days, and a file number of your own.
Week 1
Rake & record
Scaffolding up, sheets down, joints raked by hand to twice their width and vacuumed, depth verified joint by joint. Dutchmen are cut and dry-fitted where the arris has gone, and each repair is logged against the drawing before it is bedded.
Weeks 2–4
Point, bed, strike
NHL lime flushed in two passes; stone inserts and salvage units bedded in lime and struck to the original profile; arches, where there are any, laid from both spring lines with the keystone last on timber centering.
Week 6
Cure & file
Carbonation finishes under mist and covers. The file is closed — drawing, chip record, batch numbers, photographs — signed into your name, a copy archived at the yard and a copy handed over with the warranty.
Since 1991
The archive, counted
Selected files
From the archive
Six closed files from the Stow and the parishes beyond — chosen because each shows a different craft doing its quiet work. The addresses travel with the survey; the owners insist on it.
Paper, lime, patience
Asked at the first meeting
The three questions the Stow asks first, answered the way we answer them with the file open on the tailgate.
Why does a wall need a file?
Because a wall that has been drawn can be argued with honestly. When a joint needs attention in 2041, the file says what was raked, what was pointed, which lime and why — the repair starts from evidence instead of archaeology. Buyers’ surveyors ask for our files by name now, which is the strangest compliment the trade receives.
Lime or portland — honestly?
Lime, on anything built before 1930, and not as a preference. Lime is softer than the brick and sacrificial — it weathers out so the brick doesn’t have to. Portland is stronger than old brick, so the freeze-thaw cycle breaks the brick to save the mortar: exactly backwards.
How is a Dutchman chosen?
The weathered face is cut back to sound stone, and an insert is dressed from a quarry or salvage match — approved wet, in daylight, beside the wall it will live in. A Dutchman that reads right at noon is invisible by two; one that reads wrong at noon is wrong forever.
How long is the waiting list?
Five weeks at present, one restoration at a time. We would rather hand you an honest date than a hopeful one — the wall has waited a century and is not in a hurry, and a rushed rake is the one wound it will not forgive.
They drew our barn before they quoted it, and the drawing was accurate enough that the scaffolder used it. When the pointing was done the file came with the invoice — my wife filed it with the deeds, which is exactly where it belongs.
The salvage match was laid out on the lawn, wetted, and the mason asked me to pick the wrong one. I could not, from a metre away, in daylight. That is the whole trade, demonstrated on grass.
The registry arch had been "repaired" twice by people who meant well. Arris & Archive numbered the voussoirs, closed the ring on centering, and the file photograph of the keystone going in is the best picture of our building I own.
Twenty-five years, file-backed
If a joint we pointed fails or a repair we made reads wrong inside twenty-five years, we return and correct it free — the file tells us exactly what was done, which is why the promise can be this plain.
archive@arrisandarchive.example · Mimms Stow · surveys year-round
Bring us the wall, or just the photo.
Year built, what is failing, and a photo if you can manage one. The measured drawing and a written square-foot number follow inside the week — and the file stays yours whatever you decide about the work.