The Brew Cabin

Posted: **Tue Jan 13, 2009 1:43 pm**

I am a student studying for a BSc. in Product Design and Innovation at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow. For my final year project I have decided to design a product to make the pointing (or joining) of slab work quicker, easier, and more economic. I have 5 years experience as a landscape gardener and have always hated the job and have become frustrated by problems with the weather, staining of slabs, the time taken to complete the job and so on (Iâ€™m sure you all know the problems associated with the job). I am currently working on a design which quickly and effectively gets the mortar fully into the joint.

I was wondering if you could help me by giving me your thoughts on pointing, what has been successful for you, what annoys you? Have you used products such as the Pointmaster (www.pointmaster.co.uk), how did you find them? What process or mixes do you use? Have you ever thought of or made something that has made the process easier?

Any information or inspiration you could give me would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks for your time,

Euan Fraser

Posted: **Tue Jan 13, 2009 6:55 pm**

Hi Euan, theres been a huge influx of pointing and jointing products come onto the market in recent years. Sands mixed with a varity of Polymers being amongst the most popular.

There is a huge amount of products out there, some people prefer the Organic polymeric sands and others dont. You can sweep it in or even point and joint with a mastic type gun.

I'm not sure on anything new because there seems to be any endless supply of new stuff coming out by the month. Maybe you could come up with a Platesine type product that could be applied in the same way as a Glaziers putty, and then sets in the air after being pressed into the joint. It would be mess free and usable in all weathers.

They may well be some thing like that already out there. Hope you come up with something and do well by it. Good luck. Nick.

Posted: **Wed Jan 14, 2009 7:17 pm**

The two most popular forms of 'pointing aids' are the gun, such as PointMaster and the mask, such as PointRite (as shown at Glee last September).

I can't say which is best as we all have our personal preferences, but, in very, very general terms, contractors tend to go for the gun, while DIYers prefer the mask. Personally, given that my owld fellah had me pointing from the age of 3, I manage well enough without an aid, so I'd never be persuaded to use either form of aid, and given that the resin-based polymerics are now technically superior to a cement mortar, I'd be using them as far as possible.

Posted: **Wed Jan 14, 2009 9:23 pm**

the answer to your question is rompox or gtfk or similar haha soon the executive wont even allow you to bend over to point flags anymore

The Brew Cabin

Patio pointing solution - University project