Pointing simply refers to the mortar in between the masonry of the building, whether it be stone or brick. More often than not it is the case of re-pointing, whereby a traditionally built house has been pointed in cement and has since been the cause of internal damp, it then becomes necessary to remove the cementitous materials and 're-point' using a lime mortar that will allow the building to breath more effectively.

Lime pointing is a sufficient finish to a building, especially if the building is sheltered from heavy weathering.
- Stone built buildings; Stone has always been used to build as it offers huge benefits to the structural strength of a building, and were historically locally sourced. In its simplest form, a stone building will use quarried 'rubble' stone, this type of stone will be not be 'dressed' and may therefore not be overly aesthetic, it is in this case where the exterior will be given a coat of render or limewash to hide its simplistic vernacular nature. At the higher end of building with stone, top quality hard stone, often much larger than those used in vernacular design, would be 'dressed' to given a more attractive finish.
- Brick built buildings; Whilst brick is probably the most commonly visible building block in the modern world, it only became used widespread within the construction industry from the 18th century. If a building is well sheltered or even just one aspect of the building, an appropriate approach would be to allow the building to breath as much as possible by not covering the walls with any additional extras such as renders or limewashes but leaving it tightly pointed.