Bricklaying and repointing 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.
Bricklaying and repointing
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.
Three things bring most calls in. 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
The brickwork jobs we do around Matchams
Repointing the exposed elevation. Houses here face open heath and forest rather than 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 jobs out here. 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 here 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
From your call to a written price
You get one person to ring and a price broken down by elevation, so it can be compared properly. On permission, Matchams is an easier place to work than most of our patch. Nothing here is listed and there is no conservation area over it, so repointing, brick repair and a rebuilt stack are maintenance and need no application, with Planning Portal guidance on external walls covering where that stops. The land around is Green Belt, which changes nothing about repairing what is already there but does matter if you are thinking about a new outbuilding. A new lintel or an underpinned footing goes through building control, and a wall you share with a neighbour brings in Party Wall etc. Act 1996.
Cost
What decides the price of a brickwork job
There is no rate per square metre, because a wall tells you little until somebody has looked at its joints. A house set well back in its own plot, a stable block behind a five bar gate and a boundary wall right on the lane are three different set ups. Access is a priced line rather than an extra, since work at height rules cover how long a platform stands as well as how big it is, and whether a tower will reach it or a scaffold has to go up. Hand raking is the only safe way on soft old brick. Ask about rake depth, the mix, and how many bricks are being replaced.
If something has moved
Loose brickwork, or a wall that has shifted
Ring, do not use the form. Anything overhead or leaning goes to the front of the queue. The first visit makes it safe and stable, and the permanent repair is priced once we can see how far the movement goes. Out here it is usually an entrance pier caught by a vehicle or a wall pushed over by a root. The phone is answered 24 hours for emergencies; scheduled work runs Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm.
The one local thing
Nothing here is listed, 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 no listed entries in it, which 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.
Two rules still bite, 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 other is the Green Belt, which 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
A local firm you can check
Matchams is about six and a half miles from the yard, and we work the lane and the roads off it between Hurn and Ringwood most weeks, along with St Leonards, Ashley Heath and the BH24 villages either side of the Avon.
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.
Questions
Matchams questions we get asked
Nothing in Matchams is listed. Does that help us?
For this kind of work it does. Matchams has no conservation area and no listed entries at all, which is rare across the area we cover, so 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 rather than 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 rather than 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.
How soon could someone come and look at it?
Usually within a few days. Matchams is 6.5 miles from our base, so it is a short run and easy to fit around a job. 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 and we will come sooner.
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Bricklaying and repointing near Matchams
Bricklaying and repointing nearby
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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.