Bricklaying and repointing 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 here, 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 rather than 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 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 rather than 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.

No rate per square metre: the metre of wall tells you nothing until you see the joints. A first floor flat in a block, a bungalow you can walk a tower around and a semi with a gable stack are three different jobs. How long the platform stands matters as much as its size, and the work at height rules are why it is a priced line. Raking by hand is slow, so joint depth and spalled faces decide the hours, and matching a mortar or sourcing a brick takes trial panels. Ask how deep joints are raked, by hand or disc, and whether the scaffold is in.

We cover Highcliffe, Walkford, Friars Cliff, Mudeford and Christchurch, all BH23. 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.