Bricklaying in Canford Heath

Garden and boundary walls. Low front walls on the estate were often built in a single skin of facing brick on a shallow footing, with no pier and no proper coping. Frost gets into the top course, the joints open, and roots from a hedge push it over.

We take down the loose section, dig out and pour a new concrete footing where the old one has failed, and rebuild with piers at regular spacing and a coping that throws water clear.

Cracked house walls. A stepped crack under a window often means the lintel above has sagged or rusted, or that the ground has moved. We look at the crack pattern and whether it is still moving before we price. Where the brickwork has cracked but is sound, we cut out and replace the damaged bricks and stitch it with helical bars.

Porches and small extensions. A new porch or a single storey extension is built as a cavity wall: an outer skin of facing brick, an inner leaf of blockwork, insulation in the cavity, and stainless wall ties tying the two together. We set a damp proof course at the right height and build a cavity tray over any opening. Most of these need building control approval, and a wall on the boundary may need a party wall notice.

Brick matching. Houses of this age in Canford Heath were built in machine made facing bricks, and the colour can change from one close to the next as each phase was built. We bring sample bricks to your wall, check the colour and size in daylight, and build a small panel if the match is close. A new stretcher bond wall should blend in once it has had a winter of weathering.

Mortar. These houses were built in cement mortar, not lime, and repairs are done in a matching cement and sand mix. Soft lime mortars belong on the older solid wall houses of Poole and Bournemouth rather than here. If it is the joints that have failed rather than the bricks, that is a repointing job in Canford Heath and is priced as such.

Chimneys. Where a house here has a chimney and the top has weathered, we rebuild the top courses and renew the flaunching round the pots.

No rate per square metre, because the metre of wall tells you almost nothing until you know what the joints are like.

Getting to it. A detached house with a long front wall, a semi with the side passage full of bins, and a bungalow with a garden wall right against the pavement all need different access and different working space. A chimney or a gable wants a scaffold, a garden wall wants nothing. How long the platform stands matters as much as its size, and the work at height rules are why it is a priced line rather than an optional extra.

The joints, not the wall. Raking out by hand is slow and is the only safe way on soft old brick. How deep the joints have to come out, and whether the brick faces have already spalled, decides the hours more than the area does.

The mix, and matching. Matching an existing mortar for colour, texture and strength takes trial panels. Matching a brick means sourcing it. Neither is a line most quotes make visible, and both are why two prices for the same wall can be so far apart.

Comparing quotes? Ask how deep the joints are being raked and by hand or by disc, what the mortar mix is and whether it has been matched, how many bricks are being replaced, and whether the scaffold is included. A lower figure may simply cover less work.

We cover Canford Heath and the streets around it, from Gravel Hill across to Tower Park, and out to Creekmoor, Oakdale and Broadstone. BCP Council is the planning and building control authority, and our base in Boscombe is about six miles away.

You are dealing with Bournemouth Roofing & Building, the trading name of 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. Before you book a visit in Canford Heath, you can read our customers' Google reviews, word for word, on our reviews page.

Most repairs in Canford Heath 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.