Bricklaying in Matchams
Repointing, brick repair, chimney stacks, gate piers and outbuilding walls along Matchams Lane and the roads either side of it.
The site visit is free and so is the written itemised quote. Thomas Hannen prices every job himself.
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The work
Brickwork in Matchams: what we do, and what usually needs doing
Out on Matchams Lane the wall that gives trouble is nearly always the one facing the open heath. Nothing stands between it and the weather, so the joints go back on that elevation while the sheltered side of the same building is still sound. We repoint what has opened up, cut out brick faces that have blown, and rebuild the walls and piers that have moved in the sand.
Damage to Matchams brickwork mostly comes from the weather face, frost and shallow footings. Joints you can get a screwdriver into on the south west face. A brick that has gone sandy and shed its face after a frost, usually low down or right on a corner. And a boundary wall, a gate pier or an outbuilding that has leaned, because it was built off a shallow footing in ground that does not hold a trench.
We come out and look at the building itself. Properties along here sit in their own plots with a lot of weather and a lot of tree cover around them, and the same house can need work on one wall and nothing at all on another. You get a straight view of what is worth doing now, and an itemised written price if you want one. The site visit and the quote cost nothing.
The work
Brickwork jobs around Matchams
The exposed elevation. Houses here face open heath and forest, not other houses, so driven rain arrives with nothing to slow it down. It does not attack the middle of a wall. It works the corners, the reveals around windows and doors, the course under a sill and the top of a gable.
We rake back to sound mortar, keep the mix a shade softer than the brick, and put back the profile the wall already has. Pricing by elevation rather than by house is the single biggest saving on most houses out in Matchams. Sand ground and tree cover keep the bottom of a wall damp long after a shower, and a damp brick with an open joint beside it is the one that loses its face in a frost, so a brick that has started spalling is cut out and replaced from a reclaimed batch, which has the weathering on it already, with a sample panel on your own wall first.
Piers, outbuildings and stacks. This is a lane of gateways. Gate piers get clipped by vehicles, leaned on by gates that have dropped, and built off footings that were never deep enough. Sand carries a load well when it is confined and badly when it is washed out, so a wall that has been fine for years can start to lean after a wet winter or once a new drain runs past it. We rebuild bowed lengths, put a damp proof course in where the wall will take one, reset coping, and bond piers into the wall rather than standing them on the end. Plenty of the brickwork out in Matchams is not the house: single skin stores, stable blocks and old workshops, most with no cavity and no damp proof course, plenty of it in a soft handmade brick that no disc cutter should go near. We will say plainly when a wall has gone too far and a rebuild is the cheaper answer. A stack here stands clear of the trees and takes wind from every side, and that is work at height off a scaffold, with the platform priced separately.
How it runs
Brick piers, boundary walls and chimney repairs
Thomas comes out to look at the brickwork himself and prices it wall by wall, so you can compare each part properly. The quote covers access, taking down or cutting out, the bricks and how they are matched, the mortar, any lintel or ties, and clearing up.
Entrance piers and walls along the lane are ground level work. A chimney needs scaffold, and if the plot allows we stand it on your own ground rather than the verge. Rubble goes in the skip, the site is swept each evening and everything leaves with us. If a wall opens up to show a failed lintel or a footing that has moved, we stop and send you pictures with the cost of putting it right.
With no conservation area anywhere in Matchams, and on an unlisted house, repointing, brick repair and rebuilding a stack like for like count as maintenance and need no application, and Planning Portal guidance on external walls shows where that ends. The Green Belt matters only for a new outbuilding. A new lintel or an underpinned footing goes through building control at Dorset Council, and a wall shared with a neighbour brings in the Party Wall etc. Act 1996.
Cost
Piers, stacks and matching the brick
The area of a wall tells you little until someone has looked at its joints and at what moved it.
What happened to it. An entrance pier clipped by a vehicle, a boundary wall pushed over by a tree root, and a chimney loosened by wind are three different repairs. A root has to be dealt with before the wall goes back up, or it goes again.
Weather on the stack. A chimney or gable facing south west takes driven rain and frost, so its joints and flaunching wear faster than the sheltered faces. Cracked flaunching and open joints on a stack are worth pricing together while the scaffold is up.
Access. A tower or scaffold for anything above head height, shown openly under the work at height rules. Whether it stands on a hard drive or a soft lawn matters too.
Matching. Reclaimed bricks for an older wall cost more than new, and getting the mortar colour right takes a trial mix. Soft brick is raked by hand, which is slower.
Ask a competing quote how deep the joints are raked, what mix is used, how many bricks are being replaced, and what they think caused the damage.
If something has moved
A pier knocked, or a wall pushed over
Anything overhead or leaning needs a phone call, not the form. On a rural plot the usual suspects are an entrance pier caught by a vehicle, a garden wall shoved over by a root, or bricks loose on a stack after a gale.
Keep people and cars clear of it. The first visit makes it safe and stable, by taking down loose courses or propping what is left, and the permanent repair is priced when we know how much has moved. Planned brickwork is booked Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm. If nobody answers when you ring, the call comes back to you as soon as we can.
The one local thing
No conservation area here, so the decisions are yours
Almost everywhere else we work has something hanging over it. A conservation area, a listed cottage, a wall that turns out to be listed in its own right. Matchams has none of that. There is no conservation area over it, and on an ordinary house that means nobody has to approve your mortar, your brick or the profile of your joint.
That is genuinely useful, and it also means the responsibility for getting it right sits with whoever you employ. A hard cement mortar on a soft old outbuilding will still destroy the brick, whether or not a planning officer ever sees it. We match to the wall because the wall needs it, not because a form does.
Permitted development and the Green Belt still apply, and they are worth knowing before you plan anything. New walls, gates and piers have height limits under permitted development, tighter where they front a road used by vehicles than where they run between gardens, and Planning Portal guidance on fences, gates and garden walls sets those out.
Get a pier built above the limit and the problem is yours to unpick later. The Green Belt is why a new outbuilding is a different conversation from repairing the one you have. Neither of those touches repointing or a repair, so if you have been putting off a wall because you assumed there would be paperwork, there is not.
Who you are dealing with
Who builds and mends your walls
Thomas Hannen runs the firm, and he comes to see the wall and price it in person. The drive from our base in Boscombe to Matchams is about five and a half miles.
We cover the lane and the roads off it between Hurn and Ringwood, plus St Leonards, Ashley Heath and St Ives on the Dorset side of the Avon, where Dorset Council is the authority. We are Bournemouth Roofing & Building Ltd, registered in England and Wales, company number 15471719. Checkatrade holds a verified review from a customer giving us 10 out of 10. There is no fee for the site visit or the itemised quote in writing. Before you book a visit in Matchams, you can read our customers' Google reviews, word for word, on our reviews page.
Planning at a glance
Do you need planning permission in Matchams?
Most repairs in Matchams 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.
| Question | In Matchams |
|---|---|
| Who decides | Dorset Council is the planning authority for Matchams. Dorset Council's heritage pages set out what it controls. |
| Conservation area | None covers Matchams, so a like-for-like repair is ordinary maintenance. |
| Listed buildings | Nothing in Matchams is on the statutory list, so listed building consent does not come into it. |
| Protected landscape | No National Park or National Landscape covers Matchams. |
Questions
Questions about bricklaying in Matchams
Matchams has no conservation area. Does that help us?
For this kind of work it does. Matchams has no conservation area, which is rare across the area we cover, so unless the Historic England list shows your own building, the brick, the mortar colour and the joint profile are your decision and not a planning matter. Dorset Council has nothing to approve on a straight repair. That lets us specify a mix that suits the wall instead of one an officer will accept.
Which elevation should we spend the money on first?
The south west face: that is the most exposed elevation at Matchams, and wind driven rain works at the edges and the openings, not in the middle of a surface, so the joints go around the reveals, under the cills and at the verge first. The sheltered walls are often still sound. We price the failing elevation on its own and list the rest separately.
Can we put up a brick garage on our plot?
Laying it is the easy part. Matchams falls in Green Belt, which does nothing to a repair but weighs heavily on a new outbuilding or an extension, so the permission has to be settled with Dorset Council before we book anything in. Once it is agreed we set out the foundations, build it and tie the roof in. Rebuilding or repointing what already stands is not affected.
Where does all the raked out mortar end up?
In a skip or on the van, and never in the hedge. We sheet the ground under the elevation we are working on, sweep the sheets down at the end of each day and take the spoil away. Where there is room at Matchams to stand a skip clear of the road we do that, because it keeps the drive usable. Nothing gets buried on site and nothing goes into a drain.
Who comes to look at it, and what does that cost?
Matchams is 5.3 miles from our base, so it is a short run. Thomas Hannen comes out himself, walks the wall and prices it, and both the site visit and the written itemised quote are free. If a section is leaning or a coping is loose rather than just untidy, say so when you ring.
Nearby, and next door
Bricklaying near Matchams
Nearby places we also cover for bricklaying, with straight-line distances from Matchams, and the other trades we offer in Matchams itself.
Bricklaying nearby
Our other trades in Matchams
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Free quote
Ask us to look at the wall
Tell us which elevation or which wall is bothering you. We will come out, look at the whole building, and put an itemised written price in your hand.