Bricklaying in Kinson

Chimney stacks. Most post-war semis have a chimney stack on the party wall shared by the pair. After decades of weather the top courses go first: the flaunching cracks, the mortar washes out, and bricks come loose around the pots.

We take the stack down to sound brickwork, rebuild it in a matched brick with a new flaunching, and re-dress the lead flashing where it meets the roof. If the chimney is no longer used, we can take it down below the roof line and tile over, which removes the maintenance for good.

Front and garden walls. Low brick boundary walls on the front of these Kinson houses were often built with little or no footing, and tree roots, frost and the odd car bumper take them out of line. A wall that has leaned or cracked usually has to come down and be rebuilt on a new concrete footing, with a damp proof course and a proper coping or brick on edge so rain runs off rather than soaking down into it. A run along a front garden is often two or three days.

Piers and steps. Gate piers split when a heavy gate is hung off a bolt into a single brick. We rebuild them with a steel core where needed. Front steps built of brick lose their faces to frost, and we cut out and replace the spalled bricks, or rebuild the step.

Cracks and cut-outs. A crack that steps through the mortar under a window often points to a failed lintel. We check it, replace the lintel if it has gone, and stitch or cut out and replace the cracked brickwork.

Porches, extensions and new walls. New brickwork is built in brick and blockwork with a cavity and wall ties, in a bond that matches the house. The trick on a Kinson house is finding a brick that sits happily next to one that has weathered for seventy years, so we bring sample bricks and set a small panel before we order.

When we would talk you out of it. A garden wall with a few open joints does not need rebuilding. Nor does a sound stack with a cracked pot. We say so.

No rate per square metre, because the metre of wall tells you almost nothing until you know what the joints are like.

Getting to it. A Kinson bungalow chimney that comes off a tower, a two storey stack on a pair of semis, and a front wall on a corner plot facing two roads are three different set ups. A chimney or a gable wants a scaffold, a garden wall wants nothing. How long the platform stands matters as much as its size, and the work at height rules are why it is a priced line rather than an optional extra.

The joints, not the wall. Raking out by hand is slow and is the only safe way on soft old brick. How deep the joints have to come out, and whether the brick faces have already spalled, decides the hours more than the area does.

The mix, and matching. Matching an existing mortar for colour, texture and strength takes trial panels. Matching a brick means sourcing it. Neither is a line most quotes make visible, and both are why two prices for the same wall can be so far apart.

Comparing quotes? Ask how deep the joints are being raked and by hand or by disc, what the mortar mix is and whether it has been matched, how many bricks are being replaced, and whether the scaffold is included. The answers tell you whether the quotes are for the same work.

We cover Kinson and the rest of BH10 and BH11, from Bear Cross and West Howe to Ensbury Park and Northbourne. BCP Council is the local authority, and our Boscombe base is under four miles away.

You are dealing with Bournemouth Roofing & Building, the trading name of 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. Before you book a visit in Kinson, you can read our customers' Google reviews, word for word, on our reviews page.

Most repairs in Kinson 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.