Bricklaying in Lilliput

Garden and boundary walls. A freestanding wall needs a proper footing, a damp proof course near the bottom, movement joints on a long run, and a coping that throws water clear of both faces. A failed garden wall usually lacks one of those. We rebuild on a new foundation where the old one has gone, reuse the sound bricks, and set the bond and the coping to match the rest of the wall.

Retaining walls. A wall that holds back soil is a different structure from one that only stands up. It needs thickness or reinforcement for the height of ground behind it, and drainage through it, or water builds up behind and pushes it over. Where a retaining wall is bowed or cracked, we tell you honestly whether it can be tied back or has to come down, and when a structural engineer should see it first.

Piers, steps and gate pillars. A pier takes the weight of a gate on one side, so it cracks at the base. We cut out and rebuild, and bed the hinge fixings into solid work.

Chimneys. Loose bricks near the top of a stack, cracked flaunching round the pots and washed out joints on the weather side. We rebuild the top courses where needed, renew the flaunching and fit a new lead flashing where it meets the roof.

Extensions and new blockwork. For a new wall, a porch or a single storey extension we build in blockwork and face brick with a cavity, wall ties at the proper spacing and lintels over the openings, with building control involved from the start.

Matching. New brick against old always shows at first. We find the closest brick, reclaimed where that suits, and build a small sample panel so you can see the brick, the mortar colour and the joint before we go ahead. Where a wall mainly needs its joints renewing rather than rebuilding, that is our repointing work in Lilliput.

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 Lilliput wall at the top of a sloping garden reached down a flight of steps costs more to supply than one next to a drive, and on Sandbanks Road a front wall is built with the pavement kept open. 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. Without those answers, the figures cannot be compared fairly.

We cover Lilliput and all of BH14, along Sandbanks Road and Lilliput Road to Evening Hill and Salterns, and on to Whitecliff, Canford Cliffs and Penn Hill. BCP Council is the planning and building control authority, and our base in Boscombe is about five 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 Lilliput, you can read our customers' Google reviews, word for word, on our reviews page.

Most repairs in Lilliput 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.