Bricklaying in Breamore

Taking cement pointing back off soft brick. This is the biggest single job in a village like this one. Handmade brick from before the railways is soft and porous, and it was laid in a lime mortar that let the wall breathe and moved with it.

When somebody points over that in sand and cement, the water that used to leave through the joint has nowhere to go and leaves through the brick instead. The face spalls, the joint stands proud, and each winter frost takes another layer. We rake the cement out by hand, unit by unit, and point back in an NHL lime mix with a sand matched for colour and grain, finished flush or slightly recessed so the brick edge reads as the face of the wall, not the mortar.

Walls with no damp proof course. Older brickwork here often has no dpc in it, and never did. The wall handles ground moisture by letting it evaporate out through the lower courses, which is exactly why a breathable joint matters more at the bottom of the wall than anywhere else. Before anyone talks about injecting anything, we look at what has been done to the outside: a raised path, a new bed of gravel or a cement render skirt trapping damp against a solid wall causes more of what passes for rising damp than the wall itself does. Where a face has blown past saving we cut the unit out and replace it with a reclaimed brick of the right period, laid so the bond reads correctly rather than as an obvious patch, and sourcing is half the job on an elevation you can see from the lane.

Stacks on the older houses stand well clear of the roof and take the weather from every side, so repointing a stack, renewing cracked flaunching around the pots and resetting a coping that has lost its bedding are the jobs that keep water out of the top of a wall. On a listed building the stack usually has to go back exactly as it was, which means recording it before anything is touched. Free-standing walls in Breamore weather from both faces at once and often carry a brick on edge coping that has started to lift, so bowed sections come back to plumb on a proper footing and clipped gate piers are repaired rather than propped. New work is extensions, garden rooms and rebuilt outbuildings in blockwork with a facing skin.

Matching the brick takes time. An old handmade brick is a different size and colour from a modern one. Finding a match usually means reclaimed brick, and that takes looking for. On a listed building it has to match.

Lime, not cement. Old soft brick and flint must be laid and pointed in lime mortar. Cement is harder than the brick, so water and frost damage the brick instead of the joint. Lime takes longer to mix, lay and cure, and it needs protecting from frost and hot sun while it sets.

How far the damage goes. Spalled bricks, a bulge in a garden wall, a cracked chimney stack or a lintel that has dropped all change the job. The hours are set by the joint depth, how many bricks are cut out, and whether a section has to come down and be rebuilt.

Getting to it. A low wall on a lane is worked from the ground. A stack or a gable end means scaffolding, and the work at height rules are the reason it appears as its own line, priced by how long it stands.

Consent. Where the building is listed, a written specification may be needed before work can start.

Ask any other quote whether lime or cement is going in, where the bricks are coming from, and whether the scaffold is included.

Every brickwork job is priced by the owner, Thomas Hannen, after he has seen it. Breamore is 16.1 miles from the base in Boscombe. He also takes on walls in Fordingbridge, Rockbourne, Sandleheath, Downton and the rest of the SP6 postcode.

Planning here is New Forest District Council. On the public register the firm appears as Bournemouth Roofing & Building Ltd, registered in England and Wales, company number 15471719. Checkatrade verified the customer who gave it 10 out of 10. You are not charged for the visit, and the written quote showing each part is free. Before you book a visit in Breamore, you can read our customers' Google reviews, word for word, on our reviews page.

Most repairs in Breamore 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.