Bricklaying in Bashley

Modern brickwork, and where it goes. Very little here needs a whole house doing. On the later houses, brickwork of the last forty years was laid in a cement mortar harder than the brick, so it does not wash out the way a lime joint does.

It fails in patches: the perpends open on the elevation that takes the weather, joints under a cill or a coping give way where water concentrates, and hairline cracking follows the bed joints where the mix was too rich. Those areas are raked out square to sound mortar and pointed back in a matched mix, struck to the profile already there, which on this housing is usually a bucket handle rather than weather struck or flush.

Cracks over openings, and movement joints. Modern houses have wide windows, patio doors and long unbroken elevations, and the openings and the long runs each crack in their own way. A dropped or corroding lintel over a wide opening shows as a crack running up from one corner, and it is fixed by propping the opening, replacing the lintel and rebuilding the brickwork over it. And where a long run of brickwork was built without a vertical movement joint, or the joint was filled with something hard, the wall makes its own crack at the weakest point instead. Cutting a proper joint in and sealing it correctly stops it opening again, which repointing on its own will not.

Plots here are large and the lanes are narrow, so walls and gate piers take a lot of punishment from vehicles and from roots. A pier out of plumb is rebuilt off its footing rather than straightened, a bowed length comes down and goes back up with its own bricks where they are sound, and drainage goes in behind anything holding back a change in level. A good share of the work is not the house at all: garages, workshops, stores and stabling get new brick and blockwork, repairs to the bottom courses where the ground has crept up over the damp proof course, new openings and rebuilt gable ends. There is a scatter of much older building here too, including five listed entries, and those solid walls get a lime mix, hand raking rather than a disc, and badly spalled brick replaced from reclaimed handmade stock.

We do not quote a rate per square metre, because the joints and the ground decide this job, not the area. What we are working on. Here it is often a detached house or bungalow, a garage, workshop or stable behind it, or a long boundary wall down a lane, and much of that is single storey work from a tower. A chimney or a gable needs scaffold, and the work at height rules make access its own line.

The ground. Bashley sits on clay that shrinks in dry weather and swells in wet. A stepped crack that opens every summer may be ground movement rather than mortar. If a downpipe empties next to the foundation, part of the fix may be taking that water further away, in line with Approved Document H.

The joints. Hand raking takes longer, but it keeps the brick edges intact. The depth of the joints and the number of spalled faces decide the hours.

The bricks. Matching a modern facing brick is usually straightforward. An older cottage brick may need a reclaimed match, which takes time to find.

The mix. The mortar should be softer than the brick, so the joint takes the wear and the face does not.

Ask other quotes how deep they will rake and whether by hand or disc, which mix, how many bricks, and whether the scaffold is included.

Our base in Boscombe is a eight and a half mile drive from Bashley. We take on walls, piers and outbuildings across Bashley, Wootton and Tiptoe, and through New Milton and up to Brockenhurst. Planning sits with the National Park Authority, and structural work goes to New Forest District Council's building control.

Bournemouth Roofing & Building Ltd is registered in England and Wales, company number 15471719. The owner, Thomas Hannen, prices the brickwork himself after seeing it. A verified customer on Checkatrade scored us 10 out of 10. The site visit is free, as is the itemised quote in writing. Before you book a visit in Bashley, you can read our customers' Google reviews, word for word, on our reviews page.

Most repairs in Bashley need no application at all. What decides whether a change to the outside of your house does is who the council is, whether a conservation area or a listing applies, and whether the place sits in a protected landscape.