Bricklaying in Cranborne
Lime repointing, brick and flint repair, high boundary walls and chimney stacks in Cranborne and the villages along the chalk.
The site visit is free and so is the written itemised quote. Thomas Hannen prices every job himself.
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The work
Old walls in Cranborne: what we do, and how we work on them
Old walls in Cranborne want lime, worked by hand, and very little else. Rake the tired joints out, put back a mortar softer than the brick or the flint around it, and the wall goes back to drying out through the joint the way it was built to. The mistakes worth undoing here were all made with a mixer full of cement and the best of intentions.
What to look for on an old wall round Cranborne: Joints that have washed back far enough to see into the wall, usually low down or on the side that takes the weather. Flints or bricks that have started to come loose in a boundary wall because there is nothing left holding them. And a stretch of high wall that has developed a bulge and is now leaning further every wet winter.
We come out and look at the wall in front of us, not at a photo of it, because around Cranborne the same symptom has three or four different causes and only one of them is the mortar. You get a straight view of what needs doing now, what can sensibly wait, and an itemised written price for the part that cannot. The visit and the quote are both free.
The work
Brickwork jobs in and around Cranborne
Brick and flint is its own trade. A great deal of the walling here is not plain brickwork at all. Flint set in wide lime joints, often banded or quoined with brick, is a different discipline: the flint itself is not absorbent, so every bit of the weathering happens in the mortar, and the joint is doing structural work as well as keeping water out.
That means raking carefully, not deeply, because take too much out and the flints move, a properly graded lime mix packed and pressed rather than buttered on, and galleting put back where the original had it. On soft handmade brick the joints were the sacrificial part, so they come out by hand and go back in an NHL lime with the sand matched, with a sample panel to look at first.
High walls and stacks. The tall walls around Cranborne are slender for their height and rely on their coping and their piers to stay upright. Once the coping is loose water goes into the core, freezes and pushes the faces apart, and a wall that has started spalling loses a little more with every frost, so we rebuild bowed lengths, reinstate brick on edge or tile creasing coping, rebuild buttress and gate piers, and put a damp proof course in at the base where the appearance allows it. On a thatched cottage the stack has to stand well clear of the ridge, and several here have been reduced over the years without much thought: cracked flaunching, pointing gone from the top courses, a lean that has crept in. We rebuild stacks course for course and reuse the original brick where it is sound, making the shortfall up from a reclaimed batch, not a modern facing brick, off a scaffold, under the same HSE guidance on work at height that applies to any roof job. A crack that steps out of a window head is usually the lintel or the ground, not the mortar, and we say which before we price a repair.
How it runs
Surveying and rebuilding brickwork on the edge of the Chase
Thomas walks every elevation, takes photos of anything he will need to explain, and prices it there.
The quote lists access, raking out, the mix, each elevation, how many bricks need replacing, and the waste.
Walls around Cranborne are often brick and flint in lime: tall boundary walls, garden walls, chimney stacks that have stood a long time. Where a wall runs along the lane, the platform and the materials must leave the road open. Bricks are matched for size and colour before any are ordered, and you agree the mortar colour on a sample panel. Boards are cleared each evening and rubble goes in the skip. A rotten lintel or loose core behind the face is shown to you in a photo, with the cost, before we go further.
Everyday repair needs no planning permission or building control. Cranborne is inside the Cranborne Chase National Landscape, so anything visible from the road gets looked at closely, and the village is in the Cranborne Conservation Area as well. On a listed building, the Manor House among them, repointing that changes the mortar, colour or joint profile needs consent. Height limits for a new or raised wall are in Planning Portal guidance on fences, gates and garden walls, and a shared wall comes under the Party Wall etc. Act 1996.
Cost
Joints, faces and access: what sets a brickwork price
We do not price brickwork by the square metre, because the joints decide the hours, not the area. Getting to the wall. A cottage wall right on the street, a tall boundary wall with a field behind it and a house down its own drive are three different set ups. A chimney stack needs a platform at roof height. That platform is a priced line, and the work at height rules are why.
How far the joints go back. Joints washed out to a shallow depth rake out quickly. Joints that have gone soft deep into the wall, or a face that has already spalled, take far longer, and on soft brick the raking has to be done by hand.
Flint and lime. Brick and flint walls take more care than plain brick, because every flint is set in the mortar and a careless rake loosens them. Lime is slower to work and cure than cement, and it is the right choice on most of the older walls in Cranborne.
Brick replacement. Matching old handmade bricks can mean reclaimed stock, which takes finding. The count of bricks that need cutting out and replacing is its own line.
Before you choose, ask each firm how deep they rake, whether by hand or by disc, what mix they will use, how many bricks they have allowed for, and whether the scaffold is included.
If something has moved
A wall or chimney that has started to lean
Keep people and cars away from it, and do not try to push it back. Anything overhead or leaning comes first: a chimney stack that has moved, a parapet, a garden wall pushed out by roots, or a gate pier clipped by a vehicle.
A length of old boundary wall can bulge after a wet winter as the lime behind the face softens. On the first visit we prop, take down or cordon off whatever is unsafe, and then work out what caused it before pricing the rebuild. Normal booked work is Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm. If a wall has moved, call us instead of sending the form, and if nobody answers, you will get a call back as soon as we can.
The one local thing
Cranborne is a conservation area, and it decides what goes back on
The village is a conservation area with twenty five listed entries inside the parish, the manor house among them. The one practical effect on brickwork is that appearance is controlled. Repairing like for like is still maintenance and needs no application, so nobody has to ask permission to put back what was already there.
What is not allowed to happen quietly is a change of appearance: a soft red wall repointed in grey cement with a hard ribbon joint reads as a different building from thirty yards away, even though it started life as a repair.
If the property itself is listed, repointing that alters the mortar or the joint needs listed building consent from Dorset Council before a joint is opened, and that includes garden and boundary walls inside the curtilage, which catches people out more often than the house does.
Before you get quotes in Cranborne, know the rule of thumb: repair in the same material, the same mix and the same profile needs nothing, while anything that changes what the wall looks like probably does, and the awkward middle ground is worth a phone call to the council, not a guess.
And if a wall of yours is coming down for any reason, keep the bricks. A crate of original handmade brick from your own wall is the only exact match you will ever have, and it is worth far more sitting behind the shed than it is in a skip. We stack and set aside anything reusable as a matter of course, and it is on the quote as a line rather than as a favour.
Who you are dealing with
Brickwork priced by the owner, not a salesman
We are 13.9 miles away in Boscombe, and for brickwork we cover the village, Wimborne St Giles, Sixpenny Handley, Alderholt and Verwood, all under Dorset Council. Bournemouth Roofing & Building Ltd is registered in England and Wales, and its company number is 15471719. Before you book a visit in Cranborne, you can read our customers' Google reviews, word for word, on our reviews page.
It is owned by Thomas Hannen, who comes to look at your wall and puts the price together himself. A verified customer on Checkatrade gave the firm 10 out of 10. We do not charge to visit, and the written quote, with each item listed, is free too.
Planning at a glance
Do you need planning permission in Cranborne?
Most repairs in Cranborne 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.
| Question | In Cranborne |
|---|---|
| Who decides | Dorset Council is the planning authority for Cranborne. Dorset Council's heritage pages set out what it controls. |
| Conservation area | Yes: Cranborne Conservation Area. Check whether your street is inside the boundary before changing anything visible. |
| Listed buildings | Yes, there are listed buildings in and around Cranborne. If yours is one, work can need listed building consent. |
| Protected landscape | Inside the Cranborne Chase & West Wiltshire Downs National Landscape (formerly AONB), so anything visible from outside gets more attention. |
Questions
Questions about bricklaying in Cranborne
Is design scrutiny a real obstacle to brickwork here?
Rarely, for repairs. Cranborne sits in the Cranborne Chase and West Wiltshire Downs National Landscape, which means anything visible is looked at on design grounds, so Dorset Council will have a view on a change of material or colour on an elevation seen from the road. Repointing that matches what is already there is not a change. The paperwork starts when the appearance moves, not when the scaffold does.
Could our outbuilding be listed along with the house?
It can be, and people are caught out by it. Cranborne has 25 listed entries including Cranborne Manor House, and listing normally extends to walls and outbuildings inside the curtilage instead of stopping at the front door. You can look your own address up on the national list to see what is covered. Where an outbuilding is caught, mortar for a repair is settled through the consent, not on site.
Can the conservation area object to a lighter mortar colour?
Usually it comes down to the sand. Inside the Cranborne Conservation Area appearance is controlled, so a joint reading noticeably paler or greyer than the wall it sits in counts as a change rather than maintenance. Colour in a lime mortar comes from the sand it is mixed with, not from a pigment stirred in at the end, so we take a sample of the old joint and match the aggregate to it.
Who comes out to price a job this far out?
Thomas Hannen, who owns the firm. Cranborne is 13.9 miles from our base, so it is a booked visit rather than a passing look, and he measures the elevations himself, rakes a joint to see how deep the failure runs, and looks at the wall heads and copings while he is there. The written itemised quote follows and both are free.
Our boundary wall leans towards the lane. Repair or rebuild?
Once a free standing wall is out of plumb by more than its own thickness, repointing the joints does nothing about how the load is travelling, so it becomes a rebuild decision. In a village where walls sit right on the lane, the consequence of leaving it is more than an untidy boundary. We take it down in sections, keep every brick or stone that is sound, and rebuild off a footing under a coping that throws water clear.
Nearby, and next door
Bricklaying near Cranborne
Nearby places we also cover for bricklaying, with straight-line distances from Cranborne, and the other trades we offer in Cranborne itself.
Bricklaying nearby
Our other trades in Cranborne
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Free quote
Get the wall looked at before it moves further
Tell us what you are seeing and we will come out, look at the whole wall and give you a written itemised price with the access and the disposal on it.