Bricklaying and repointing in East Boldre
Repointing, brick repairs, outbuildings and new walls across East Boldre and the SO42 lanes, priced in writing once somebody has actually looked at the wall.
The site visit is free and so is the written itemised quote. Thomas Hannen prices every job himself.
On the plots along this lane the brickwork that goes first is rarely the house. It is the outbuilding, the boundary wall and the bottom of anything standing on a shallow footing, because the ground under East Boldre moves with the seasons and a shallow footing moves with it.
The three calls we get from East Boldre are much the same each time. A stable, a store or a workshop with stepped cracking at one corner that seems to open through the summer. Mortar washed out of the face that takes the weather off the open forest, usually the south west one, until you can put a finger into the bed joint. And a wall by the lane that something has caught, or that a root has quietly pushed over.
All three are ordinary brickwork and all three are cheaper done early, because an open joint lets a winter into the wall and a moving wall does not stop on its own. We come out and survey it, say plainly which of those you have, and price it in writing before anything is disturbed.
The work
What we take on around these plots
Solid brick and single skin. Most of the older brickwork out here is soft red brick in a lime mortar with no cavity behind it. The joints come out by hand with a hacking iron and a plugging chisel, because a grinder on soft brick takes the arris off and that damage is permanent. We rake back to about twice the width of the joint, damp the wall, and fill in lifts with an NHL 3.5 lime and a sharp sand, kept weaker than the brick so the mortar wears and the face does not, flush on the sheltered elevations and weather struck where the wall takes the rain head on. Outbuildings, stables and stores are the commonest brickwork on plots like these by a distance: single skin, no cavity, piers at the corners and often a wide opening with a tired lintel over it. The work is usually local: a cracked corner rebuilt, a new lintel in with the opening propped and needled, frost damaged brick replaced at the base, then the lot repointed so it dries evenly. Where the roof has been leaking into the top of a wall for years, that gets sorted first or the brickwork does it again.
Cob on a brick plinth. There is still cob in this parish, usually rendered and standing on a brick plinth, and the plinth is our half of it: failed brick comes out, the joints go back in lime, and the render stays off the plinth, so the wall carries on drying at the bottom instead of pushing the damp upwards. On this exposed edge stacks lose their flaunching and joints before anything else on the house and are repointed or rebuilt above the roof line off a scaffold, while on the ground it is lifted brick-on-edge copings, gate piers out of plumb and boundary walls rebuilt off a proper footing where the movement is live.
How it runs
From your call to a written price
Thomas comes out and prices it himself, and the quote is itemised: access, raking out, the mortar mix, the area of each elevation, brick replacement and disposal on separate lines. East Boldre sits inside the New Forest National Park, so the Authority is the planning authority rather than the district council, and the Forest South East conservation area covers a good deal of this side of the parish. Repointing like for like is repair. A change of material or appearance is not, and there are eight listed entries along these lanes, including cob and thatch. National Park heritage and conservation guidance is worth two minutes before you commit to anything visible from the road.
Cost
What decides the price of a brickwork job
We do not price brickwork by the square metre. The joints decide it, not the area. A cottage tight against the lane, a stable block at the end of a track and a chimney stack are three different problems in getting to the work. 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. Ask any other quote how deep the joints are raked, what the mix is, and whether scaffold is in.
If something has moved
Loose brickwork, or a wall that has shifted
Ring rather than use the form. Anything overhead or leaning goes to the front of the queue: a chimney with movement in it, a parapet, a garden wall pushed out by roots or a vehicle. Out here it is usually a stack, a gable, or a length of wall by the lane caught by something turning. The phone is answered 24 hours for emergencies; scheduled work runs Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm.
The local part
Ground that moves, and where your rainwater ends up
The ground under this parish carries a significant shrink and swell rating. Cohesive ground gives up water and shrinks through a dry summer, takes it back and swells over a wet winter, and anything sitting on a shallow footing rides up and down with it.
That is why so much of the cracking on outbuildings and garden walls here is seasonal: it opens in August, closes by February, and comes back the following year. A wall built off a foundation dug below the depth where that movement happens does not do it, which is the difference between rebuilding a wall once and repairing it every few years.
The part you can control is water. A downpipe emptying beside a footing, a soakaway sited too close to a wall, or a bed built up against the brickwork all concentrate the wetting and drying in one place, and that is exactly where the crack turns up. Approved Document H is about drainage rather than brickwork, but on ground like this getting the surface water away from the wall is half the repair and the cheaper half.
Mature trees do the same thing from the other direction, drawing water out of cohesive ground in a dry spell faster than anything else on the plot. Where a crack is still live we would rather fit a couple of tell-tales and watch it for a season than rebuild the same wall twice.
Who you are dealing with
A local firm you can check
We cover East Boldre, Beaulieu, Boldre, Brockenhurst, Lymington and the SO42 lanes, with the New Forest National Park Authority for planning and New Forest District Council for building control. 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.
Questions
East Boldre questions we get asked
Our address is in Forest South East. What does that mean?
Appearance is controlled and the authority is the New Forest National Park Authority rather than a district council. East Boldre falls inside the Forest South East conservation area, so a like for like repoint stays maintenance with nothing to apply for, while a change of mortar colour, profile or material is a change and may need consent. There are 8 listed entries in the settlement, and if yours is one the position is different again.
Should a new garden wall have movement joints on this ground?
On any run of length, yes. The ground around East Boldre is cohesive and shrinks and swells through the year, so a long unbroken wall on a shallow footing has nowhere to go when the clay moves and it cracks at its weakest point, usually beside a pier or a gate. A joint built in at intervals gives it somewhere to move. That is easy at the start and impossible to add later.
Do Park rules cover an outbuilding out of sight of the road?
Often they do. The National Park Authority scrutinises what is visible, and visible here means from a lane, a track or open forest rather than only from your own gate, so a building at the back of a plot is not automatically outside it. Repair in matching materials rarely causes any difficulty. It is a change of material, a new opening or extra height that gets a proper look.
What does one more winter do to a soft joint?
It moves the damage out of the mortar and into the brick. Water sits in a hollow joint, freezes, and takes the arrises off the bricks either side, and a spalled brick has to be cut out and replaced rather than simply pointed. One winter rarely costs you a wall. It does turn a pointing job into a pointing and brick replacement job, and an open wall head is the worst place to leave it.
Who will actually be on site doing the work?
Thomas Hannen owns the firm and prices every job himself, so the person quoting it is the person answerable for it, and you get his number rather than an office switchboard. On a repoint or a garden wall out here it is a small team working one elevation at a time. The company is Bournemouth Roofing and Building Ltd, registered in England and Wales, company number 15471719.
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Get a written price for your East Boldre brickwork
Send the postcode and a photograph of the wall if you can get to it. The site visit is free, the quote is itemised line by line, and Thomas prices it himself.