Stonemason · Harrogate · est. 2012
I’m Alfie Fitzpatrick, a time-served stonemason. I repair, repoint and replaster listed and pre-1919 buildings from Leeds up to the Scottish Borders — masonry, lime mortar and lime plaster, using breathable materials the fabric can actually live with.
What I do
Most of my work is repair rather than replacement. If a stone can be saved, cut back and patched, that is nearly always cheaper and always better than taking it out.
Cutting and setting new stone to match what is already there — ashlar, coursed rubble, quoins, cills, mullions and copings. Banker work in local gritstone and limestone, with indent and dutchman repairs where only part of a stone has failed.
Hard cement pointing raked out by hand — never with a disc cutter across the stone — and replaced with a mortar matched to the original for colour, aggregate and strength. Hot-mixed lime or NHL 2 / 3.5 depending on exposure, finished so the arrises of the stone stay proud of the joint.
Haired lime plaster on riven lath, three-coat lime render on solid walls, and limewash or mineral paint to finish. Proper curing time between coats, so the wall keeps breathing and the plaster doesn’t let go in five years.
DOFF superheated steam and TORC low-pressure swirl cleaning to lift soot, paint and biological growth without taking the face off the stone. Trial panels first, always, so you can see the result on your own wall before a whole elevation is committed.
Arch and lintel repairs, crack stitching with stainless helical ties, rebuilding bulged or dropped sections stone for stone, and taking down and rebuilding boundary and retaining walls to their original coursing.
The places water actually gets in: stacks taken down and rebuilt, parapet and coping repairs, ridges and verges re-bedded in lime, lead flashings renewed and valleys and gutters put right.
Why work with me
You get me on site, not a subcontractor you have never met. I quote the work, I do the work, and you have my mobile number throughout.
Four-year apprenticeship at a banker mason’s yard in Otley, NVQ Level 3 in Stonemasonry and Level 3 Heritage Skills, both through City & Guilds.
Lime, not cement, on solid-wall buildings. If someone has quoted you sand and cement for a pre-1919 wall, get a second opinion before you accept it.
£5m public liability, in place and current. The certificate goes out with every written quote, before you think to ask for it.
An itemised price with a materials schedule and a method statement. No day rates that drift, and no variations I haven’t flagged with you first.
All workmanship guaranteed for five years in writing. I live and work in the same dales as most of my customers — I am not hard to find.
Cards & accreditations
Copies of every card and certificate go out with your quote. Happy to send them ahead of a site visit if your insurer or main contractor needs them.
About
I started on the tools at sixteen, sweeping a banker mason’s yard in Otley and watching men who had been cutting stone for thirty years. Four years later I came out of my apprenticeship with an NVQ Level 3 and a fairly clear idea of how much I still had to learn.
Most of that learning happened on scaffolds across the Dales and the North Pennines — mill conversions in Saltaire and Shipley, farmhouses above Settle that hadn’t been touched since the war, church walls in the Eden Valley, and a long stretch of estate boundary wall near Richmond that took the better part of a summer. I went out on my own in 2012.
What I care about is simple, and it is the reason I turn work down. A solid-wall building put up before about 1919 was designed to get wet and then dry out again. Cement pointing and gypsum plaster stop it doing that, so the damp sits in the stone instead of leaving through the joint. The joint is meant to be the sacrificial part — softer than the stone around it — and once you make it harder than the stone, the stone is what spalls.
So I use lime. I match mortars by sample taken off the building rather than out of a bag, I keep the arrises of the stone sharp instead of smearing mortar across the face, and I photograph everything before it comes apart so it can go back the way it was.
I work on my own for most jobs and bring in a second pair of hands for lifts and larger rebuilds. If a job needs a structural engineer, a conservation-accredited architect or a roofer, I will say so and tell you who to ring — including the times when that means the job isn’t mine.
I’m based in Harrogate and I’ll travel anywhere from Leeds to the Scottish Borders. Happy to come and look at one cracked cill or a whole elevation.
Where I work
Based in Harrogate, on site anywhere from Leeds northwards to the Scottish Borders. Roughly two hours’ drive in any direction as a rule, and further for bigger jobs where it is worth staying over.
Listed building consent and scheduled monument consent are applied for by the owner, not the contractor — but I will put together the method statement and record photographs the application needs, and I am used to working to a conservation officer’s conditions. England: Grade I, II* and II. Scotland: Category A, B and C.
How a job runs
Free, and I come to you. I look at the fabric, open up a joint if you are happy for me to, and tell you what is actually wrong before anyone talks about money.
An itemised price, a materials schedule and a method statement you can hand straight to a conservation officer. Usually with you inside a week.
Agreed start date, scaffold where it is needed, dust sheets and a tidy site at the end of each day. Progress photographs sent to you weekly.
We walk the job together before the scaffold comes down. Five-year written guarantee, plus a record of what was done and what it was done with, for the house file.
Common questions
Yes. I hold an NVQ Level 3 in Stonemasonry and a Level 3 Heritage Skills qualification, both through City & Guilds, and I have worked on Grade II and Grade II* buildings in England and Category B buildings in Scotland.
Consent is applied for by the owner rather than the contractor, but I will prepare the method statement, materials schedule and record photographs the application needs, and work to whatever conditions come back.
Only. Lime putty and natural hydraulic lime — NHL 2 and NHL 3.5 — for mortars, hot-mixed lime where exposure calls for it, haired lime plaster internally, and limewash or a mineral paint to finish.
Mortars are matched to a sample taken from your building for colour, aggregate and strength. The mortar should always be weaker than the stone, so the joint wears instead of the masonry. I will not put cement on a solid wall.
£5m public liability, in place and current, and the certificate goes out with every written quote. If your insurer, managing agent or a main contractor needs it in a particular format or needs to be named, just say.
It depends on access, how hard the existing mortar is to get out, and how much of the stone has been damaged behind it. As a guide, hand-raked lime repointing runs £95–£140 per square metre of elevation, with scaffold costed separately.
Cement that has been power-ground into the joints sits at the top of that range, because it has to come out by hand and slowly. I would rather give you a real number after a look at the wall than a cheap one over the phone.
Five years on all workmanship, in writing, from the day the job signs off. Materials carry whatever the manufacturer offers on top of that.
Lime work wants a little aftercare through its first winter. I will tell you what to keep an eye on, and I would far rather you rang me about it than left it.
Get in touch
Call, email, or send a few details and a photograph. I answer the phone on site, so if it rings out leave a message and I will ring back the same evening.