Bricklaying in Redlynch
Lime repointing on solid walls, brick repair, boundary walls and chimney stacks across Redlynch, Woodfalls and Morgan's Vale.
The site visit is free and so is the written itemised quote. Thomas Hannen prices every job himself.
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The work
Brick repairs in Redlynch: what needs doing, and what can wait
On the older houses along this parish the walls are solid brick, or brick and flint, with no cavity behind them and no damp proof course under them. They were bedded in lime, and the right repair is lime again. On the detached houses and bungalows built round Redlynch since the war the wall is a cavity, the mortar is cement, and the fault is nearly always one weather-beaten elevation instead of the whole building.
Redlynch walls tend to show their age in the joints, the faces or the line. Joints washed back on the elevation that faces the weather, deep enough to put a finger in. Brick faces that have blown and left a soft crumbling pocket where a hard cement repair was smeared over an old wall. Or something that has moved: a garden wall leaning into the lane, a pier off plumb, a stack out of square above the ridge.
We come and look at the building first, because in a parish that runs from Victorian brick cottages to nineteen-seventies detached houses the first question is what your wall is actually made of. You get a straight answer on what needs doing, what can be left alone for now, and an itemised written price if you want one. The site visit and the quote are both free.
The work
Brickwork jobs in Redlynch
Solid walls and lime joints. The oldest houses here predate 1919. The old cottages through Redlynch, Woodfalls and Morgan's Vale are one brick thick, often with flint coursed in below the first floor.
Joints are raked out by hand to about twice their width, with no disc cutter near a soft arris, and repointed in an NHL lime mortar mixed with a sand picked to match what came out for colour and grain. You approve a sample panel in daylight before we start an elevation. Plenty of walls in Redlynch were repointed in a hard sand and cement mix in the seventies and eighties. It looks sound and it is the reason the brick faces are spalling: the joint is the only way a solid wall gets rid of water, so seal it and the water leaves through the brick instead, one frost at a time.
Victorian brick, lane walls and the postwar houses. The chapels, the school buildings and the estate cottages are hard Victorian brick in soft lime joints, usually with a gauged arch over each window. Arches drop and open at the skewback, so we cut out and re-set them rather than fill the crack, matching the sand so the repair is not a stripe. The lanes in Redlynch are lined with brick and flint walls, most without a footing worth the name and with a brick-on-edge or tile coping that has lost its bedding, and once the coping goes the wall fills with water and pushes out at the top. On the detached houses and bungalows built from the fifties onwards the usual sign is horizontal cracking every few courses where the ties have rusted and lifted the bed joint, a cracked lintel over a garage opening, and cement pointing eroded on the south west face while the sheltered elevations are fine. On the forest edge a stack catches weather from every side, and access is its own line.
How it runs
Brick and flint repairs, from survey to the last course
Thomas looks at the wall with you, scrapes at a joint or two to see what the mortar is, and checks whether the brick faces are sound. On the older cottages that is often brick and flint laid in lime, and the new work has to match it.
You get a written quote broken down by elevation: access, raking out, the mortar and its mix, any bricks or flints to replace, rebuilding where needed, and disposal.
A garden wall needs no platform. A chimney stack or a gable needs scaffold, and on the sloping plots here it is built up on the downhill side. Joints on soft brick are raked out by hand. Dust sheets go down, the mixer stands on boards, and the rubble leaves with us. If a hidden crack or a loose section turns up behind the face, work stops, you are sent a photo, and the extra is priced before we touch it.
Wiltshire Council is the authority. With no conservation area over Redlynch, repointing and brick repair on an ordinary house are repair and need no application. On a listed building or wall even repointing counts as alteration and needs consent first, which other permissions you may require explains. Where the look of a wall would change, see Planning Portal guidance on external walls. A rebuilt garden wall has its own limits under the guidance on fences, gates and garden walls, and a shared wall brings in the Party Wall etc. Act 1996.
Cost
What sets the cost of brickwork on older walls and newer ones
We will not give you a square metre rate, because the joints and the bricks decide the job, not the area.
The setting. A cottage whose front wall is on the lane, a detached house set back behind its drive, and a bungalow gable that doubles as the boundary are three different set ups. Stacks and gables mean scaffold, and the work at height rules make that a separate item. A garden wall needs none.
Brick and flint. Flint panels take longer than plain brick. Each flint has to be bedded and the joints worked round it, and loose flints have to be reset. Matching the brick on an old cottage can mean sourcing reclaimed stock.
The mortar. Walls built before the First World War were laid in lime. Raking them out by hand and repointing in a matched lime mortar is slower than cement, but cement on soft brick traps water and the faces spall in the frost. A post-war house in cement mortar is a quicker job.
Movement. A crack that has moved needs its cause found before it is filled, and that can mean wall ties or a section rebuilt.
Ask anyone else how deep the joints will come out, whether by hand or with a grinder, and what mix they will use.
If something has moved
A wall leaning or bricks coming loose
If a wall has started to lean, a stack looks out of line, or bricks are dropping from a gable, ring rather than using the form. Keep people and cars away from anything that could fall, and on a roadside wall put something out to warn drivers if it is safe to.
The first visit is about making it safe: taking down loose bricks, propping or fencing off, and seeing how far the movement goes before the permanent repair is priced. Scheduled work runs Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm. Should no one answer, you will get a call back as soon as we can.
The one local thing
Solid walls, and why the mortar has to be softer than the brick
A good quarter of the houses in this parish were built before 1919, and that one fact changes almost every decision about your brickwork. A solid wall has no cavity to stop water and no damp proof course to stop it rising.
It handles wet the only way it can, by letting it in and letting it out again through the joints, which is why those walls were built in lime and why lime is soft enough to be sacrificial. The mortar is meant to weather and be renewed. The brick is not.
So the practical advice for an older house here is short. Do not let anyone repoint it in sand and cement, however neat the finish looks and however much cheaper the day rate sounds. Do not let anyone run a disc cutter down joints in soft handmade brick, because the cut widens the joint permanently and takes the arris off every brick it touches. Ask what the mix is, by name, and ask to see a sample panel on your own wall before a whole elevation is done.
If the wall is already struggling, look at what is feeding it before you look at the pointing: a downpipe discharging onto the brick, a raised path or a new drive that has buried the bottom two courses, or a flower bed banked against the wall will all keep it wet whatever the joint is made of. We check those first, because fixing them is cheap and repointing a wall that is still being soaked is not.
Who you are dealing with
Bricklayers for Hamptworth, Lover and the SP5 villages
Thomas drives up to Redlynch from our base in Boscombe, 18.2 miles away. We cover the village and the SP5 settlements round it, Woodfalls, Morgan's Vale, Lover and Hamptworth, then down through Downton and across to Fordingbridge. Planning and listed building consent sit with Wiltshire Council, except in Lover and Hamptworth, which lie in the New Forest National Park, where the National Park Authority decides.
Every wall is looked at and priced by Thomas Hannen, who owns the company: Bournemouth Roofing & Building Ltd, registered in England and Wales, company number 15471719. Checkatrade shows a 10 out of 10 from one of our verified customers. The site visit is free, and the itemised quote you get in writing is free too. Before you book a visit in Redlynch, you can read our customers' Google reviews, word for word, on our reviews page.
Planning at a glance
Do you need planning permission in Redlynch?
Most repairs in Redlynch 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 Redlynch |
|---|---|
| Who decides | Wiltshire Council is the planning authority for the village; inside the National Park it is the New Forest NPA. |
| Conservation area | None covers Redlynch, so a like-for-like repair is ordinary maintenance. |
| Listed buildings | Yes, there are listed buildings in and around Redlynch. If yours is one, work can need listed building consent. |
| Protected landscape | Part of the parish, around Lover and Hamptworth, lies in the New Forest National Park. |
Questions
Questions about bricklaying in Redlynch
Why does our old wall need lime rather than cement?
Because the wall has to breathe and cement stops it. A Redlynch wall from before 1919 has no cavity and no damp course, so moisture that gets in has to leave through the joint. Seal the joint with cement and it leaves through the brick or stone face instead, taking the face with it. Lime is soft enough to keep that route open.
What tells you a wall was built without a cavity?
The brick pattern: a solid wall shows headers, the short ends of bricks, every few courses, because it is tied through its own thickness. A cavity wall shows stretchers all the way up. On the pre 1919 houses in Redlynch you will see headers, and that changes the mortar we use and how deep we rake back. The thickness at a window reveal is the other giveaway.
Does Wiltshire Council have a say in a repair?
Not on an ordinary house here. Redlynch has no conservation area of its own and 12 listed entries, so unless the address is one of those there is nothing to apply for before repointing or rebuilding a wall. That is worth knowing, because people assume an old village carries blanket controls. It does not. We check the address at the visit so nobody finds out afterwards.
Would an annexe here run into the Solent nutrient rules?
It could: Redlynch drains into the Solent catchment, and nutrient neutrality bites where a scheme creates new overnight accommodation, so a self-contained annexe or a holiday let can engage it, while an extension to your own house normally does not and masonry repairs never do. It is a matter to raise with Wiltshire Council at the outset rather than after the drawings are done. We can build it once the permission is sorted.
Can you rebuild the chimney stack while you are here?
We can, and it is often the right time to do it. On the older Redlynch houses the stacks are tall, bedded in lime and exposed on every side, so they lose bedding and flaunching before the walls below show anything. We take it down to a sound course, rebuild in a matching mix and reset the pots. Doing it while the scaffold is already up saves setting up twice.
Nearby, and next door
Bricklaying near Redlynch
Nearby places we also cover for bricklaying, with straight-line distances from Redlynch, and the other trades we offer in Redlynch itself.
Bricklaying nearby
Our other trades in Redlynch
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Free quote
Want a straight price on your brickwork?
Tell us what the wall is doing and we will come and look at it. Free site visit, free itemised written quote, and an honest answer about what can wait.