John came round promptly to provide a quote and started the job the week after. John quoted me a fair price and said if the work didn't take as long then the labour cost would be reduced, however the labour cost ended up being as he estimated.
John did leave his mortar and rubble for me to remove, however it was never agreed that he would remove it before the job started therefore I presumed that if asked, John would have happily moved this.
There was quite a bit of mess left in my back yard, however after speaking to John about this he promptly came round and get washed it for me and explained it wasn't cleaned up before hand as it was too wet. John jet washed my yard (and my kitchen by the looks of it) free of charge which I was very happy with, he also disposed of a very large boiler for me (as it was too heavy for me to lift).
Overall I was very happy with the pointing work and John offered a lot of advice on how to care for it, I would have preferred for the house to be cleared of rubble, and my kitchen not to have been jet washed also but to be fair to John this was never agreed in the quote.
I would recommend John for building works in the future.