Bricklaying in Stourpaine
Lime repointing on flint and brick, chimney stacks, copings and boundary walls in Stourpaine and the Blandford villages.
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 and flint in Stourpaine: what we do, and what we put back
Hard cement pointed over the flint faces does real damage to old walls in Stourpaine. Most of the old walls here are flint with brick banding and dressings, and on that kind of wall the mortar is doing two jobs at once. It keeps the rain out and it holds the flints in. So the joint gets raked back by hand and replaced in an NHL lime mix, and the sound work is left alone.
Walls in Stourpaine fail in three main ways. Flints working loose out of a wall, usually at the top of a boundary run or under a broken coping. Soft red brick around a window or a doorway crumbling behind a band of cement pointing that is still hard. And a chimney stack shedding flaunching, sometimes onto thatch, which is the one nobody should leave.
We come and look at the wall in daylight and tap it, because a face that sounds hollow and a face that is only dirty want completely different work. You get a survey in plain language, a note of what will keep for a few years, and an itemised written price for the part that will not. The site visit and the quote are both free.
The work
Brickwork jobs in Stourpaine
Flint walls, pointed to the flint and not over it. Flint takes in no water itself, so every bit of the weathering happens in the joint. The commonest fault on old walls in Stourpaine is a wall pointed with the mortar smeared out over the face of the stones, which looks solid for a decade and then sheets off taking flints with it.
Done properly the mortar sits back at the flint face, the stones read as stones, and the joint sheds water. We rake out by hand only as deep as the wall will safely give up, brush and damp it down, and point in an NHL lime mix with the sand matched for colour and grain.
Cement on soft brick, and when to leave it. The brick banding, quoins and window dressings on Stourpaine walls are soft and were laid in lime, and hard cement in those joints traps water in the brick so the first serious frost takes the face off. Where the cement has cracked away and is holding water it comes out and goes back breathable. Where it is sound and the brick behind it is whole, we say leave it. That judgement is made wall by wall on the first visit, not by a rule.
A stack over thatch has to stand well clear of the ridge, which leaves a lot of soft brickwork exposed on every side, so we rebuild course for course, keep the original brick where it will still serve, and re-form the flaunching so it sheds. That is work at height off a tower or a scaffold under work at height rules, and the platform is its own line. The flint and brick walls along the Stourpaine lanes and around the churchyard start going at the top: we rebuild bowed lengths, reinstate brick on edge or tile creasing, and reset gate piers shoved by roots or a vehicle.
How it runs
Brick and flint repairs, from first look to last joint
Thomas prices brickwork himself. He looks at the wall close up, taps for loose faces, checks the joints with a scraper and looks for movement at the corners, the openings and the top of any garden wall. The quote is itemised by elevation: access, raking out, the mortar mix, brick replacement or new flints, any rebuild, and disposal. The lot sits under one company.
Flint and old brick are usually laid in lime, so the mix is matched, not taken out of a bag. Where a wall stands on the lane, the platform is set to keep the footway open, and nothing is mixed on the road. Dust sheets go down, and rubble is bagged and taken away each day. If a hidden crack or a rotten lintel shows once work starts, you get a photograph and a price first.
Repairing like for like is maintenance and needs no planning permission. If your house, outbuilding or garden wall is listed, repointing counts as alteration and needs listed building consent before a joint is opened. A new or raised boundary wall has height limits in Planning Portal guidance on garden walls, structural work goes to Dorset Council building control, and a shared wall can bring in the Party Wall etc. Act 1996. The village is also in the Stourpaine Conservation Area.
Cost
Flint, brick and lime: what sets the cost of the work
A square metre of wall tells you little until you know what the joints and faces are like. These are the real drivers.
Flint takes longer. Flint joints are deep and uneven, with no flat face to work off, so every one is packed and finished by hand. A brick wall of the same size goes faster. Flint with brick banding and brick quoins sits somewhere between the two.
How far it has gone. Shallow weathering needs raking and repointing. Spalled bricks need cutting out and replacing with a match, and a flint wall bulging at the top of a bank may need taking down and rebuilding in part.
Access, and time on the platform. A garden wall needs nothing. A chimney or a gable needs a scaffold, and one on a lane has to be planned around the road. The work at height rules make it a priced line, and how long it stands counts as much as its size.
Ask of another quote what mortar will be used and whether it is lime, how deep the joints are raked and whether by hand, and whether the scaffold is included.
If something has moved
A wall leaning out, or bricks dropping off a stack
Ring rather than use the form. Loose bricks at the top of a chimney, a flint wall that has started to belly out, or a crack that has widened over the winter should not be left for the next storm. Keep people and cars well back.
On the first visit we take down anything loose, prop or fence off a section that is leaning, and sheet a stack that is letting in rain. Once we have traced how far the movement runs, you get a written price for the proper repair. Scheduled work runs Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm. If nobody answers, we get back to you as soon as we can.
The one local thing
In a conservation area the argument is about what was there before
Stourpaine is a conservation area from end to end, and the practical effect on brickwork is narrower than people fear. The repair itself is not controlled. What the wall looks like when you have finished is. Put back the same material, the same mix and the same joint and you are maintaining a building, which needs no application.
Change the look of it and you are altering the character of the area, and a soft flint and red brick elevation repointed in grey cement with the mortar run out over the stones reads as a different building from thirty yards down the lane, whatever the invoice says. That is the one that gets somebody a letter.
So the useful thing you can do costs nothing. Before anybody opens a joint, photograph it close up in good light and keep a lump of the old mortar in a bag. If a question is ever asked, that is the evidence of what was there, and without it the conversation becomes an argument about memory. Listing and timing are worth knowing about too.
Being in the conservation area is not the same as being listed, and Stourpaine parish has plenty of both, so check your own address rather than assume. And start early: an application takes weeks, while lime wants mild damp weather to cure in and will not be rushed in a July heatwave or a February frost. Spring and autumn are the seasons for this work, and they book up.
Who you are dealing with
Who you are dealing with on a brick or flint repair
Stourpaine is about nineteen miles out from our base in Boscombe, so we come and look at the wall rather than price it off a photograph. We also take on walls in Blandford Forum, Durweston, Iwerne Minster and the DT11 villages, all of it Dorset Council.
Bournemouth Roofing & Building Ltd, company number 15471719, is registered in England and Wales. Thomas Hannen owns the business and comes out to see the wall and price it in person. A verified Checkatrade customer gave us a 10 out of 10. There is no charge for the visit or for the written quote, which is itemised. Before you book a visit in Stourpaine, you can read our customers' Google reviews, word for word, on our reviews page.
Planning at a glance
Do you need planning permission in Stourpaine?
Most repairs in Stourpaine 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 Stourpaine |
|---|---|
| Who decides | Dorset Council is the planning authority for Stourpaine. Dorset Council's heritage pages set out what it controls. |
| Conservation area | Yes: Stourpaine Conservation Area. Check whether your street is inside the boundary before changing anything visible. |
| Listed buildings | Yes, there are listed buildings in and around Stourpaine. If yours is one, work can need listed building consent. |
| Protected landscape | Inside the Dorset National Landscape (formerly AONB), so anything visible from outside gets more attention. |
Questions
Questions about bricklaying in Stourpaine
What is controlled by the Stourpaine Conservation Area?
How the village looks, and that includes the mortar. Repairing like for like needs nothing from Dorset Council. What catches people out in Stourpaine is that taking down a boundary wall is not automatically permitted inside a conservation area, and that a change of material still counts when the wall faces the back garden instead of the street. We check what is designated and what is proposed before anything is demolished, not afterwards.
Radon shows on the map here. Does it affect brickwork?
Not brickwork repairs, no. Stourpaine is in the 1 to 3 percent band, below the 3 percent level at which new building work needs basic radon protection, so it does not reach an extension here in the way it would elsewhere in the county. It has no bearing on mortar, on ties, or on a wall rebuilt above ground. It is worth saying because the map shows it, not because it changes a single thing we do.
The church is listed. What about the cottages?
Some of them are. The Church of the Holy Trinity is listed, and so are ordinary village addresses such as Havelins Farm House and 12 Havelins Street. Listed building consent covers a repoint, because the mortar is part of the historic fabric, not a finish applied over it. Look your address up first and, if it is there, that conversation happens before the scaffold does.
How do you settle on a mix for an old wall?
By copying what came out: colour in a mortar comes from the sand, not the binder, so we take a sample of the original from a sheltered joint, break it down and mix against it. Then we lay a test panel about a metre square somewhere out of sight and leave it to dry, because wet mortar always looks darker than it will finish. You approve the panel before the elevation is started.
Where does the scaffold go on a wall against the lane?
Partly on the highway in most cases, which means clearing it with Dorset Council before it goes up rather than after a complaint. On a village street we keep the standards tight to the wall, board out a walkway underneath where there is a footpath, and light the ends of it. If the lane is too narrow for any of that, we work off a tower in shorter sections and move along the elevation.
Nearby, and next door
Bricklaying near Stourpaine
Nearby places we also cover for bricklaying, with straight-line distances from Stourpaine, and the other trades we offer in Stourpaine itself.
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Our other trades in Stourpaine
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Get a written price for your brickwork in Stourpaine
Tell us what the wall is doing and we will come and look at it properly. Free visit, itemised written quote, and no pressure afterwards.