Bricklaying in Highcliffe

Low rise blocks, and who can instruct the work. Getting on for four in ten dwellings in Highcliffe are flats, mostly in low rise blocks put up from the late fifties onwards, and on those the outside walls are communal.

If you are a leaseholder looking at eroded joints or a stained brick panel under a window, the quickest route is finding out who manages the block rather than booking a bricklayer. We will still come and look and put the work in writing so you have something to send them. One thing worth knowing early: above a threshold set per leaseholder, the leaseholders have to be consulted first under section 20 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985. That moves the timetable, not the wall, and it is easier arranged in spring than in November.

Bungalows and the long seaward elevation. Bungalows are nearly three in ten homes in Highcliffe, and they present one long low wall to the weather with very little roof overhang protecting it, a couple of hundred metres back from open water. The joints under the sills and along the bottom few courses go first, and the concrete lintels over the wide windows of that era crack their joints as the steel inside them rusts and expands. Raking out to twice the joint width and repointing in a mix softer than the brick is the right repair, finished to the profile the wall already has, whether that is a flush joint, a bucket handle or a weather struck one. On an exposed elevation the profile decides how much rain sits in the joint, and pointing it in something hard and waterproof just moves the damage into the brick.

Individual bricks get cut out and replaced with a match, which on post war stock usually means a sourced modern brick, not a reclaimed or handmade one. Where a whole area has gone, it comes down to a sound course and goes back up in the same bond. Frost is the trigger, but this close to the sea in Highcliffe the reason the brick was wet enough to freeze usually sits somewhere else on the elevation.

Two thirds of the stock here went up between 1945 and 1982, so cavity walls are old enough to be on their original ties. When a tie corrodes it swells and lifts the brickwork above it a fraction at a time, so you get fine horizontal cracking repeating every few courses and a wall that looks slightly bowed when you sight along it. That is remedial tie work rather than pointing, and we will tell you which one you have instead of pointing over it. A stack is exposed on every side at once, so it is usually first to need repointing, along with renewing the flaunching the pots are bedded in.

Nearer the castle there are a handful of older properties on solid wall construction, and those are a different job again: soft brick wants an NHL lime and sharp sand mortar with no cement in it, so the wall dries out through the joint instead of through the face. Anything we build new, front garden walls, gate piers, bin store and porch brickwork, goes on a foundation dug to firm ground, with proper footings, a damp proof course, stainless fixings and a coping bedded to throw water clear.

You will not get a price per square metre from us. The area of wall says little until someone has looked at the joints and the bricks.

The joints. Joint depth decides the hours, so does whether you have a gable, a stack or just a garden wall. Hand raking is slow; an angle grinder is quicker but widens the joint and takes the edge off the brick. Ask which.

Salt and frost on the seaward side. Walls facing the sea take wind-driven rain with salt in it. That draws out of the brick as it dries and can blow the face off. Replacing spalled bricks, and sourcing and matching a post-war facing brick that may no longer be made, can take trial panels and time.

Why it cracked. Much of Highcliffe sits on clay that shrinks and swells with the seasons. A stepped crack near a downpipe, or by a tree, may be ground movement rather than bad bricks, so where the roof water goes matters before anything is rebuilt. Approved Document H covers taking it away from the wall.

Getting to it. Scaffolding a block costs more, and for longer, than a tower or hop-up beside a bungalow wall; the rules on working at height put that on a line of its own.

Ask any other builder how the joints will be raked, what mortar they will use, and whether the scaffold is included.

Highcliffe, Walkford, Friars Cliff, Chewton and neighbouring Christchurch are all within reach of our base on Wolverton Road, Boscombe, which is 5.7 miles away, and BCP Council is the authority for planning and building control. Thomas Hannen owns the company, and he is the bricklayer who looks at your wall and writes the price.

Our Checkatrade page shows a verified customer's score of 10 out of 10. We charge nothing to come out, or for the written quote itemising the work. The registered name is Bournemouth Roofing & Building Ltd, registered in England and Wales, company number 15471719. Before you book a visit in Highcliffe, you can read our customers' Google reviews, word for word, on our reviews page.

Most repairs in Highcliffe 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.