Bricklaying and repointing in Brockenhurst

Lime, not cement. Nearly a quarter of Brockenhurst predates 1919 and the biggest single slice of the village is pre-1900: soft brick, laid in lime, built to dry outwards through its joints. Where a wall like that has been repointed in sand and cement the water has nowhere to leave except through the brick, and that is where the spalling and the white salt bloom come from. We rake the hard mortar out by hand, unit by unit, and point back in an NHL lime mix with a matched sand, finished flush or slightly recessed so the brick reads as the face of the wall. On the later cavity work the mix changes and a bucket handle or weather struck joint on the south west elevation is the right answer instead, because the weather here works at the edges and the openings rather than the middle of a wall.

Arches, cills and openings. The villas and the terraces near the station carry gauged and segmental brick arches over the openings, sometimes with a moulded string course above. When the wall settles even slightly the arch is the first thing to crack, and the crack runs straight up from the corner of the opening. Rebuilding one means taking it down with the wall above supported, cleaning and reusing what can be reused, and cutting replacements to fit rather than lifting a lintel in and rendering over the loss.

Stacks on the tall houses here stand well clear of the roof and take weather from all four sides. Repointing a stack, renewing the flaunching around the pots and resetting a coping that has lost its bedding is a day or two of work off a scaffold, and it heads off the ceiling repair that follows if it is left. Lower down, once a face has blown each frost takes another layer, so we cut out the failed units and set in a reclaimed or handmade brick of the right period, keeping the bond honest so the repair does not read as a patch. Around here the worst of it is always in the bottom four or five courses, which is what you would expect with the Lymington River running through the village and the low ground sitting in flood zone 3.

Free-standing walls, gate piers and the low walls that front properties onto the village lawns weather from both faces and stand in ground that stays damp longer than most. They lean, they bow, and their brick-on-edge copings lift. Rebuilding a section on a footing that goes down properly is usually the cheaper end of it. New work is extensions and outbuildings in blockwork with a facing skin, laid in stretcher bond to match, with the cavity, wall ties and a damp proof course detailed properly, and a new lintel cut in where an opening is widened and the foundation below can carry it.

No rate per square metre: the metre of wall tells you nothing until you know what the joints are like. A tall villa stack, a terrace near the station with no rear access and a garden wall you can walk right round are three different jobs. The platform is a priced line rather than a favour, under work at height rules. Depth of rake and the state of the brick faces decide the hours, not the square metres. Comparing quotes, ask the rake depth, hand or disc, the mix, the brick count and the scaffold.

We work in Brockenhurst and the villages around it, Lyndhurst, Boldre, East Boldre and down towards Lymington, and the SO42 postcode generally. Bournemouth Roofing & Building Ltd, registered in England and Wales, company number 15471719, which you can look up in a minute. Thomas Hannen's business, and he is the one who comes out to price the job, not a salesman. A verified customer's 10 out of 10 on Checkatrade. The visit and the written quote are both free.