Bricklaying in Christchurch

Old town brickwork is soft and solid. A fifth of the housing in Christchurch predates 1919 and it is heavily terraced, which puts a lot of soft red brick in solid wall construction within a few streets of each other.

Those walls are breathable and were pointed in lime, and a great many were repointed in cement during the 1980s, which is what needs cutting back out: hard ridges standing proud of a brick face that has begun spalling behind them. We rake by hand, put back an NHL lime mortar with the sand matched to the original, and finish the profile as the street has it, weather struck or bucket handle rather than a modern flush strap. Inside the Christchurch Central conservation area, and on any listed building in the town, the profile and the colour are the whole argument, so they get agreed before an elevation starts rather than after.

Flats and 1980s blocks. Nearly two in five homes in Christchurch are flats, and the brickwork problems on a block are not the ones a house gets. Cavity walls of that period sit on galvanised wall ties that rust and expand, which shows as fine horizontal cracking every fifth or sixth course. Two kilometres from the water, the air in that cavity carries salt, which does the ties no favours and keeps a wall damp between showers, so the seaward elevation is usually the one that has gone first. Lintel bearings over the window openings crack where the steel has moved. Parapets lose their coping and take water straight down the cavity. Some of it is remedial ties, some is a lintel cut out and replaced, and none of it is repointing, so a quote that only offers repointing has not looked properly.

On a terrace the stack is usually shared, standing above the party wall, and it weathers on every face: cracked flaunching, pointing washed out of the top courses, a lean that wants taking down a few courses and rebuilding. Access is off a scaffold or a tower depending on the pitch, and it is priced as work at height because that is what it is. At ground level it is front walls onto the street, rear boundary walls between gardens, and the low retaining walls that hold up a raised bed or a bin store. Older ones were built without a damp proof course, so they wick water and the bottom courses go first. We rebuild bowed lengths on a proper footing, put a DPC in where one belongs, reset coping, and build gate piers that are actually bonded in. New brickwork is extension skins in stretcher bond with blockwork behind, a new lintel where a wall is being opened up, and foundation work where a pier or a wall is going in. Structural work goes through building control, and we would rather have that conversation at the quote stage than after the first course is laid.

Brickwork in Christchurch has no square metre rate. Until the joints and bricks have been looked at, a wall's size tells you very little.

Access. A terraced street with no side access, a flat in a block where the wall is several floors up, and a detached house with a driveway call for three different set-ups on the day. Scaffold is costed openly because of the work at height rules, and one on the pavement adds a licence.

The joints. How deep the joints have to come out, and whether they are raked by hand or by disc, decides the hours. Soft Victorian brick needs hand work.

Salt and weather. Near the coast, salt gets into the brick and crystallises as the wall dries, and the faces spall. The south-west walls take the most driven rain. Spalled bricks are cut out and replaced with a match, and the brick count is its own line.

Movement. On shrinking clay, a crack that opened in a dry summer may need helical bars set into the bed joints, and a downpipe spilling beside the footing needs sorting before any stitching.

The mix. A mortar harder than the brick pushes the damage into the brick. Matching the mix to the wall matters more than matching the colour.

Ask of any other quote: how deep is the rake, hand or disc, and how many bricks are being replaced?

We cover Christchurch and the BH23 streets around it, from the town centre out to Mudeford, Somerford, Burton and Highcliffe, 2.7 miles out from Boscombe where we are based. BCP Council handles planning and building control, including a new lintel.

You are dealing with Bournemouth Roofing & Building Ltd, registered in England and Wales, company number 15471719. The owner, Thomas Hannen, looks at the wall with you and prices it himself. Checkatrade shows a 10 out of 10 from one verified customer. Neither the visit nor the itemised written quote is charged for. Before you book a visit in Christchurch, you can read our customers' Google reviews, word for word, on our reviews page.

Most repairs in Christchurch 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.