Bricklaying in Winterborne Kingston
Repointing in a matched mix, brick and flint repairs, chimneys and new brickwork in Winterborne Kingston, priced one elevation at a time.
The site visit is free and so is the written itemised quote. Thomas Hannen prices every job himself.
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Most houses in Winterborne Kingston do not need repointing all the way round. One elevation takes the weather here and the other three sit in its lee, so the honest quote is often for the south west face and the gable, with the rest left alone until it needs doing.
Brickwork in Winterborne Kingston shows it wants attention at the joints, the faces and the boundary walls. Joints that have washed back so far on one wall that you can put a finger in them, while the wall on the other side of the house still looks new. Brick faces flaking off below a window or beside a downpipe, so the wall is losing its skin course by course. Or a boundary wall on the road through Winterborne Kingston that has bowed out, lost its coping, or been caught by something farm sized.
Winterborne Kingston runs along the valley with old brick, flint and cob in the middle of it and twentieth century houses filling in around that, and the right answer is not the same on both. We survey the wall, tell you which parts genuinely need work now, and put the rest in writing as something to look at again, not something to pay for today.
The work
What Kingston walls tend to need
Brick and flint in a matched mix. A lot of older Winterborne Kingston is banded work: flint panels with brick at the corners, the openings and the string courses, bedded in lime. On that wall the joint is the sacrificial part, so it has to be softer than what it holds.
We rake out by hand with a chisel and a hacksaw blade rather than a disc, back to sound material, and point in a lime mix matched to the existing for colour, sand and strength, flush or slightly recessed as the wall has it. Where one of these walls has been pointed in sand and cement, moisture that used to leave through the joint leaves through the face instead and one frost later the faces are spalling while the pointing is untouched. Taking it out is slow hand work, and the only way to let the wall breathe. Those bricks get cut out and replaced with a reclaimed handmade brick of the same size rather than filled with mortar.
The long walls along the road take ivy, standing water where the coping has gone and the occasional wheel, and the North Winterbourne runs seventy metres from Winterborne Kingston in flood zones 2 and 3, so the ground under them is often saturated, and with no damp proof course in the base of a wall like that the bottom courses go soft first. Once a length is bowed the sound answer is to take that section down and rebuild off the same footing with the flint reset and the coping put back to shed. Gate piers are rebuilt and tied in rather than propped. A crack stepping out of a window head is usually the lintel or the ground, not the mortar. What you can build without an application is worth a look before you change a wall height. Where a cottage is cob on a brick or flint plinth we look after the brick that protects it, because keeping the top and the base dry is most of what keeps cob standing; the cob itself is a specialist repair and we say so. Stacks get repointed and the flaunching renewed, and where the roof is thatched the access is planned around the thatch before the quote.
How it runs
Brick and flint repairs, from the survey to the last joint
You call, and Thomas comes out to look at the wall himself. He checks the brick, any flint panels, the mortar, and whether the damage comes from weather, movement or something knocking into it. He takes a sample of the old mortar so the new mix can match. The written quote is itemised: access, raking out, the mortar mix, cutting out and replacing bricks, any rebuilding, and taking the waste away.
A garden or boundary wall is worked from the ground. A gable or a chimney stack needs a scaffold, and on a cottage close to the lane that means planning where the uprights stand and keeping the path clear for neighbours. In wet weather the wall is covered at night so fresh mortar does not wash out. Offcuts and old mortar are cleared daily and taken away. If a lintel or a hidden crack shows up once the old work is out, Thomas sends you a photograph with a price attached before going on.
Like for like repairs are maintenance, with no planning permission and no building control, as the Planning Portal guidance on external walls sets out. The village has no conservation area. It does have seven listed entries, the church among them, and on a listed wall even a change of mortar can need listed building consent from Dorset Council. We check the address before we quote, not after.
Cost
Brickwork prices come down to access and the mix
Brickwork in Winterborne Kingston has no per metre rate. The same size of wall can be days apart in labour. Where the wall is. A garden wall on open ground is one set-up.
A gable on a cottage right on the lane, or a long boundary wall with traffic passing it, needs scaffold, barriers or both, and the platform stays up for as long as the mortar needs to cure. That is why access is a separate line under the work at height rules.
What the wall is made of. Soft old brick and flint are raked out by hand, because a grinder chips the arrises and cracks the flints. It is slow work, and on an older wall it is the main cost.
The mortar. On older solid walls, a lime mortar lets the wall dry out. A hard cement mix traps water behind the face and the brick spalls in frost. Matching the sand, the colour and the joint is part of the price, not an extra.
What turns up. Cracked bricks, a failed lintel, or a wall pushed out by roots or ground movement all change the job. Thomas looks for the signs before he quotes. Anything hidden that turns up is photographed and priced before work continues.
Ask other quotes which mortar they intend to use, whether they rake by hand, and whether the scaffold is in their figure.
If something has moved
A leaning wall or loose bricks overhead
Phone us, do not use the form. Bricks coming loose from a chimney, a coping that has shifted, or a garden wall leaning over a path is a safety problem. Keep people and cars clear of it.
On the first visit we make it safe: take down loose courses, prop or brace what is leaning, and fence it off if it stands by the road. Then Thomas prices the rebuild. The village is out beyond Bere Regis from us, so tell us exactly where the wall is when you ring. Our scheduled work runs Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm. Ring about anything urgent, and if no one answers, expect a call back as soon as we can.
The one local thing
Only one elevation is really taking the weather
The wind and the rain that damage brickwork in Winterborne Kingston come off the south west and run up the open valley, and there is very little in the way to slow them down. Driven rain does not soak a wall evenly.
It hits the exposed face, works into the joints, saturates the outer few inches and then either dries back out through a soft lime joint or, if somebody has sealed the joints in cement, sits in the brick until the next frost. That is why on a lot of houses in Winterborne Kingston the south west gable and the front elevation are eaten back while the sheltered side has joints you could have pointed last year.
What that should change for you is the quote you accept. Ask any bricklayer to price the elevations separately, not as one figure for the house, walk round with them, and make them justify each one. Doing the weather face properly, in the right mix, and leaving the other three for another day is usually the better use of the money, and it is also less disruption and less scaffold time.
Insist on the details while you are up there. Get the joint profile right, because a recessed joint on an exposed wall holds water on every ledge, and a slightly weathered or flush joint sheds it. And get the copings, sills and verges looked at at the same time, because on an exposed elevation it is nearly always an edge or an opening that lets the water in, not the middle of the wall.
Who you are dealing with
Who builds your wall, and how far they come
Winterborne Kingston is about 16.2 miles from our base in Boscombe. We work across the village, Bere Regis, Milborne St Andrew, Winterborne Whitechurch, Anderson and the rest of DT11, all under Dorset Council, and travel is shown as a line on the quote.
You will be dealing with Bournemouth Roofing & Building Ltd, registered in England and Wales, company number 15471719, which takes a minute to check. Thomas Hannen owns the firm and comes out himself to look at the wall and price it. A verified customer gave the work a 10 out of 10 score on Checkatrade. The site visit is free, and so is the written quote with each item listed. Before you book a visit in Winterborne Kingston, you can read our customers' Google reviews, word for word, on our reviews page.
Planning at a glance
Do you need planning permission in Winterborne Kingston?
Most repairs in Winterborne Kingston 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 Winterborne Kingston |
|---|---|
| Who decides | Dorset Council is the planning authority for Winterborne Kingston. Dorset Council's heritage pages set out what it controls. |
| Conservation area | None covers Winterborne Kingston, so a like-for-like repair is ordinary maintenance. |
| Listed buildings | Yes, there are listed buildings in and around Winterborne Kingston. If yours is one, work can need listed building consent. |
| Protected landscape | No National Park or National Landscape covers Winterborne Kingston. |
Questions
Questions about bricklaying in Winterborne Kingston
The lane floods every winter. Does that affect our wall?
Standing water beside a free standing wall is worse for it than rain on the face. Winterborne Kingston carries a high surface water band and sits in flood zones 2 and 3, with the North Winterbourne around seventy metres away, so a boundary wall on a shallow footing spends part of the year with its foundation in soft ground. That is what tips a wall out of plumb, and new top courses will not hold it.
How do you decide between lime and cement here?
By the wall, not by fashion. I look at what is already in the joint, at how hard the brick or stone face is, and at whether there is a cavity behind it or solid masonry. Anything soft faced and solid wants a lime mix so the joint stays the weakest part. Sound modern facing brick with a cavity is fine in a gauged cement mix. Mixed walls get a mixed answer.
Is there a conservation area in Winterborne Kingston?
There is none covering the village, so for most houses in Winterborne Kingston repointing is repair and Dorset Council has no say in it. Seven buildings are listed, the church of St Nicholas among them, and for those the position is completely different. Consent comes first, then the work, with the mortar specification part of what is approved. If you are unsure which of the two applies, the list is public and free.
What does Thomas actually do when he visits?
He walks the whole perimeter instead of just the wall you rang about, and he does it off a ladder so the top courses and the verge get seen properly. He tests joints with a chisel point, checks where the ground and any paving sit against the damp course, and looks at where rainwater ends up. Then a written itemised quote follows, elevation by elevation, and neither the visit nor the quote is charged for.
There is nowhere to park a lorry. Is that a problem?
Not usually: materials arrive on a pickup and get stacked on boards where you want them rather than tipped on a verge, and mixing happens on a boarded spot set out at the start. Where a lane in Winterborne Kingston is too tight for a lorry, deliveries come in split loads instead of one drop. Nothing is left standing across a gateway or a passing place overnight.
Nearby, and next door
Bricklaying near Winterborne Kingston
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Find out which walls actually need doing
A free site visit, every elevation priced on its own line, and no pressure to do the ones that can wait.