Bricklaying and repointing in Wareham

Repointing. The older walls in the middle of town, and 15.1 per cent of Wareham predates 1919, are soft brick laid in lime, and that mortar was always meant to be the part that gives way rather than the brick. Once the joints have washed back behind the face, water sits on the brick edge and frost does the rest. We rake out by hand, back to at least twice the width of the joint, and we do not run a disc cutter across soft brick because it takes the arris off every brick it touches. It goes back in a mix matched for colour, texture and strength, which on North Street and West Street usually means a natural hydraulic lime rather than a cement mortar. The joint profile is not decoration either: a flush or slightly recessed joint suits old brick, weather struck or bucket handle suits later work, and the profile decides how the wall sheds water. Where a face has blown, the brick is cut out whole and replaced rather than filled, and in the old town that means a reclaimed or handmade brick rather than anything off a modern pallet.

Boundary, garden and retaining walls. Wareham is full of them, including the walls holding ground back where the streets drop away towards the water. A retaining wall is a different animal from a garden wall: it is holding wet ground, so it wants weep holes and a drained backing or it will bow and eventually go over. The town sits in flood zones 2 and 3 with the Piddle a hundred and fifty metres off, and ground that stays saturated is ground that moves, so the footing under a leaning wall is the first thing we look at. We rebuild leaning sections off a proper footing, re-bed coping that has lifted, and put gate piers back where a car has caught them.

A stack takes weather from every side and is normally the worst brickwork on the house: repointing above the roof line, renewing the flaunching around the pots, and rebuilding the top courses where the mortar has gone to nothing. That is scaffold work, not a ladder job. Out on the post-war housing round the edge of the town, and 52.0 per cent of the stock is 1945 to 1982, the walls are cavity work and they fail differently. A rusting lintel over a window lifts the courses above it. Wall ties corrode and push the outer leaf out, which shows as a horizontal crack every few courses. A bowed panel gets cut out and rebuilt in stretcher bond rather than patched, and we tell you which cracks are movement and which are the wall doing what it has always done. New work is the rest: extensions, garden rooms and porches, with a blockwork inner leaf, a damp proof course at the right height and a facing brick chosen to sit with the house rather than shout at it.

No rate per square metre. Access first: a terraced house straight onto the street, a semi with a side path and a three storey town house are three different jobs, and terraces are 29.5 per cent of Wareham. How long a platform stands matters as much as its size, and work at height rules are why it is a priced line. Then the joints, and whether a lime mix and a handmade brick have to be matched and sourced. Ask how deep the raking goes, and whether it is by hand or by disc.

We cover Wareham, Stoborough, Sandford, Ridge and Wool, and out across BH20. The free site visit is where the survey actually happens: we walk the elevation with you rather than pricing off a photograph you sent. 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.