Bricklaying in Sandleheath
Lime repointing, brick repairs, chimney stacks and boundary walls in Sandleheath and around Fordingbridge.
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 Sandleheath: what we take on, and in what order
A fifth of Sandleheath predates the First World War, and the older red brick here was built to dry out through its joints. So the first question on any wall is what mortar is in it. Soft brick gets an NHL lime mix that stays weaker than the brick around it. Cement on an old wall is the fault that does most harm here, and the one most worth undoing.
Brickwork in Sandleheath ranges from worn cottage elevations to damp solid walls and the everyday repairs. A cottage elevation where the joints have eroded back and the brick faces have begun to crumble with them. A band of damp along the bottom metre of a solid wall that no amount of decorating shifts. And the ordinary unglamorous list: a stack, a bowed garden wall, a pier that needs rebuilding, a new opening that wants a lintel over it.
The wall gets looked at in daylight and tapped rather than judged from a photograph, because a face that sounds hollow and a face that is simply dirty need completely different jobs doing. You get a survey in plain words, a note of what will keep for a few years, and an itemised written price for the rest. The site visit and the quote are both free.
The work
Brickwork jobs in Sandleheath
The older brick was laid in lime. A fifth of the stock in Sandleheath predates 1919 and the biggest single slice of it is pre-1900. That soft handmade brick was laid in a lime mortar, and the joint was always meant to be the sacrificial part: it takes the weathering so the brick does not.
We rake out by hand, only as deep as the wall will safely give up, and never with a disc cutter on soft brick. It goes back in an NHL lime mix with the sand matched for colour and grain, in the profile the wall already has. You see a sample panel dry out in daylight before we carry on.
Old brickwork pointed in hard cement cannot lose the water it takes in through the joint, so it loses it through the brick instead and the face spalls after the first hard frost. That said, we do not strip cement for the sake of it. If it is sound, well stuck and the brick behind it is intact, taking it out does more harm than leaving it. Where the joints have cracked away from the brick and are holding water behind them, it comes out and goes back in lime.
The bottom of a solid wall. The ground in Sandleheath holds water instead of shedding it, and a solid wall with no damp proof course relies on being able to dry out at the base. Raised borders, a path laid over the old level and cement render skirts all stop that. We take the ground back down off the wall, repoint the base courses breathable, cut out and replace the bricks that have gone, and where a wall will take a retrofit DPC we install one.
Stacks on the older Sandleheath houses stand well clear and get the weather from every side, so they crack their flaunching and go soft in the top courses. We rebuild course for course, reuse the original brick where it is sound and match it where it is not, off a tower or a scaffold under work at height rules. Long brick garden walls fail from the top down once the coping is loose: we rebuild bowed lengths, reinstate brick on edge or tile creasing, rebuild gate piers that a vehicle or a root has shoved, and put a damp proof course in at the base. New work is extension and garage skins in stretcher bond with blockwork behind, a lintel over every opening and a footing under the lot, with a radon detail to get right as well.
How it runs
Brickwork repairs on old cottages and newer houses in Sandleheath
Thomas looks at the wall with you: whether it has moved, whether the bricks are soft handmade ones or later machine-made, what the mortar is and what sits under it. The quote is itemised by elevation or length of wall, with access, taking down, bricks to match, the mortar mix, making good and disposal on separate lines. One company takes it from start to finish.
A stack or gable gets a tower or scaffold; a garden wall usually needs none. Loose work is propped, the site is cleared each evening, and rubble leaves with us. If taking down shows a failed footing or a buried drain, you see it on a photo, priced, before the job changes.
Planning here is New Forest District Council, not Dorset, and the National Park boundary runs close enough that it is worth checking your address on the National Park property map. No conservation area covers the village and only two entries are listed, but on a listed building even repointing is alteration and needs consent first. Like for like repair needs no permission, and Planning Portal guidance on external walls covers what does. A new boundary wall has height limits under the garden walls guidance, and a shared wall brings in the Party Wall etc. Act 1996.
Cost
What decides the cost of brickwork on a pre-1900 wall
We do not price brickwork by the square metre. The same metre can take an hour or a day. The brick. About a fifth of the houses in Sandleheath predate the First World War, most of them built before 1900 in soft handmade brick. Matching that means reclaimed brick of the right size and colour, sourced separately. A post-war semi or a later detached house takes a standard brick that is easy to find.
The mortar. Old soft brick was laid in lime, and it needs lime back. A cement mortar is harder than the brick, so water and movement go through the brick face instead of the joint, and the face blows. We match the mix rather than guess it.
Why it moved. A bulged garden wall after a wet winter, a cracked stack, or a lintel that has dropped each has a cause, and a repair that ignores it does not last.
Access. A cottage wall right on the lane, a house behind a hedge and a stack on a two storey roof are three set ups. The work at height rules make platforms a priced line.
Ask anyone quoting what mix they will use, whether the bricks will match, and how deep the joints will be raked.
If something has moved
A garden wall bulging or bricks dropping from a stack
Ring rather than use the form if a wall is leaning, a boundary wall has bulged after a wet winter, or bricks have come off a chimney. Keep people and cars out of range of where it would fall, and do not push it back.
The first visit makes it safe by taking down loose courses, propping what is left or fencing it off. The rebuild is priced once we can see how far the movement goes and why. A stack on an old roof takes the weather, and it is worth a look from the ground after a gale. Planned work is Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm. When the line is busy or unanswered, we return the call as soon as we can.
The one local thing
Radon, and why it only matters when you are building
Sandleheath sits in a radon affected area, in the band where a new dwelling or an extension has to be built with basic radon protection. That is a building control matter and it lands on the bricklayer, because the protection is a sealed membrane under and around the floor, dressed up the inside of the wall and lapped into the damp proof course so there is no gap for gas to come through.
Every service that pierces it has to be sealed, and the cavity has to be dealt with rather than left as an open route from the ground into the building.
The practical point for you is timing. Built in as the footing and the first courses go down, it is a membrane and an afternoon of careful detailing. Retrofitted to a floor that is already finished, it is a different order of money entirely.
So if you are pricing an extension in Sandleheath, ask every builder quoting how they intend to detail the radon barrier at the DPC and at the cavity, and be wary of a price that does not mention it at all. None of this touches repointing, a garden wall or a chimney rebuild, where the ground is not being opened up and there is nothing to protect.
Who you are dealing with
A bricklayer for Sandleheath, Rockbourne and Fordingbridge
We cover Sandleheath, Fordingbridge, Alderholt, Rockbourne and the SP6 villages. The drive from our Boscombe base to Sandleheath is 14 miles, and New Forest District Council is the planning authority. You are dealing with Bournemouth Roofing & Building Ltd, registered in England and Wales under company number 15471719. Before you book a visit in Sandleheath, you can read our customers' Google reviews, word for word, on our reviews page.
The owner is Thomas Hannen, and he is the one who looks at your wall and prices it, not a salesman. A verified customer on Checkatrade gave us 10 out of 10. You pay nothing for the survey or for the written quote that lists each item.
Planning at a glance
Do you need planning permission in Sandleheath?
Most repairs in Sandleheath 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 Sandleheath |
|---|---|
| Who decides | New Forest District Council is the planning authority for Sandleheath. The National Park boundary runs close by, and the Park's property map shows which side an address falls. |
| Conservation area | None covers Sandleheath, so a like-for-like repair is ordinary maintenance. |
| Listed buildings | Yes, Sandleheath has listed buildings. If yours is one, or stands in the grounds of one, work can need listed building consent. |
| Protected landscape | No National Park or National Landscape covers Sandleheath. |
Questions
Questions about bricklaying in Sandleheath
Which walls in Sandleheath still have no cavity?
The pre-1919 ones, which is a fifth of the place at 20.3%, with the largest single slice pre-1900 at 16.1%. You can usually tell from the bond: where short brick ends appear at regular intervals across the face, the wall is solid and those bricks are tying the thickness of it together. Solid walls dry outwards through the mortar, so they want a lime softer than the brick and will not tolerate a cement ribbon.
Only two buildings here are listed. So what limits the work?
The wall itself: Sandleheath has two listed entries and no conservation area of its own, so New Forest District will not be asking about mortar colour on an ordinary house. What limits us is condition: how deep the joints have gone, whether the brick arrises are still square, whether a lintel or a cill has dropped. Those decide how much comes out, and they are what the itemised quote is broken down against.
Radon is mapped over this parish. Does brickwork come into it?
Not for a repair: Sandleheath sits in a 3 to 5 percent radon affected band where basic protection is expected, and that is a floor, membrane and ventilation question on a new extension or a conversion instead of anything to do with pointing. Where it touches us is a rebuild going down past the slab, because the membrane has to stay continuous where we open the wall up. We flag that before we start.
How much of the joint has to come out?
Twice the width of the joint as a minimum, and further wherever the mortar behind is soft. A shallow scrape leaves new work sitting on failed material and it drops out within a season or two. We rake by hand into the soft ground, blow the dust clear, damp the joint down and fill in two passes rather than one, so the mortar compacts against the brick instead of shrinking away from it.
Is there a time of year you would rather not point?
Frost is the limit, not cold. Lime has to carbonate before it freezes, and a joint that takes a frost in its first week goes to powder however well it was mixed. We keep lime work on the older Sandleheath walls to spring through early autumn, hang damp hessian over finished elevations in hot weather so it cures slowly, and stop when the overnight forecast turns. Cement work has more latitude, but not a great deal.
Nearby, and next door
Bricklaying near Sandleheath
Nearby places we also cover for bricklaying, with straight-line distances from Sandleheath, and the other trades we offer in Sandleheath itself.
Bricklaying nearby
Our other trades in Sandleheath
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Get a written price for your brickwork in Sandleheath
Tell us what the wall is doing and we will come out and look at it. Free visit, itemised written quote, and a straight answer about what can wait.