Repointing in Bashley: the joint you see close up
On a single storey elevation the pointing is at eye level the whole way along, so the match and the profile matter more here than almost anywhere.
The site visit is free and so is the written itemised quote. Thomas Hannen prices every job himself.
On a Bashley bungalow the pointing sits at eye level along the whole elevation, so a mortar half a shade out or a joint struck to the wrong profile shows from the drive. Matching decides whether you are happy with it.
Two in five homes here are single storey, and that changes what people notice. Nobody rings about a joint twenty feet up. They ring because the front has gone patchy where somebody filled a few joints years ago, because there is a band of open mortar under the sills, because the chimney is dropping grit into the gutter, or because a brick face has flaked off at head height.
All of it is mortar work rather than anything structural. The site visit looks at every elevation, scrapes joints to find how deep the wear goes, taps courses to hear where the pointing has come away, and photographs each face. We take a sample of sound original mortar from somewhere sheltered to match to. You get it back in writing, itemised elevation by elevation, at no cost.
The work
Mortar work on a single storey elevation
Getting the finish right at eye height. A joint you can see from three feet away is judged on the colour of the mortar, the coarseness of the sand and the profile it is struck to. Most brickwork here is bucket handle or weather struck, and both throw a different shadow from a flush joint. We put back what the wall already carries, and make up a trial panel on a discreet face for you to look at in daylight.
Nineteen eighties and nineties brickwork. Nearly two in five homes here went up after 1983, the busiest years in the nineties. That is a hard, dense, machine made facing brick in a cement and sand mortar, and it does not fail the way a Victorian wall does. The mortar shrinks back at the arris, the perpends open before the bed joints, and the pointing parts from the brick and rings hollow while still looking solid. Matching means gauging the new mortar just under the strength of the brick.
The inter-war and pre-1919 end of the village. A useful share of the housing here is from between the wars or older, and that brickwork is softer, often laid in a mortar gauged with lime. On the oldest period properties there is no cavity: a solid wall, dry only while it stays breathable. Those get an NHL lime or lime putty mix matched to the original sand, raked by hand to roughly twice the joint width. A disc cutter or angle grinder widens the joint and takes the edge off the brick, so neither leaves the van on anything soft. Joints are damped down before filling and brushed back once the mix has taken up.
Chimney stacks and flaunching. The stack is the coldest, most exposed masonry on any house here and its mortar goes loose and friable years before the walls need touching. Open joints let water in, and it arrives as penetrating damp on a bedroom ceiling. We repoint the stack, cut out the frost damaged bricks and renew the flaunching around the pots. That is work at height, priced as its own line.
Spalled faces, cut out rather than filled. Where a face has blown we cut the brick out and turn or replace it against a sample. Spalling collects under sills, beside downpipes, at the corners of a bay and just above the damp proof course where a drive has been laid hard against the house.
Porches, garage returns and low front walls. The short lengths of brickwork either side of a garage opening, around a porch or along the front of a plot have no shelter and often a coping that has stopped doing its job. Water gets into the top, freezes and opens the joints from inside. Repointing the coping bed is a small job now and an awkward one later.
How it runs
From your call to a written price
Same team from first visit to last, one person to ring, and no sub-contracting. The quote is itemised rather than a figure on the back of a card: access, raking out, the mortar mix, the area of each elevation, brick replacement and disposal all on separate lines.
Nothing is left open overnight. The site is swept at the end of each day rather than the end of the job, and what comes out leaves with us. If something turns up that nobody could have seen, you get a photograph and a price first.
Bashley sits inside the New Forest National Park, and the National Park Authority is the planning authority here rather than the district council, so an enquiry goes to a different office from the one most people expect. Repointing like for like is repair rather than development and needs nothing. There is no conservation area over the village and five listed entries in the area, and on a listed building the mortar is protected fabric, so works affecting the character of a listed building need consent. The National Park publishes its own heritage guidance, and we check the address against the boundary first.
Cost
What decides the price of a repointing job
No rate per square metre: the square metres tell you almost nothing until somebody has looked at the joints.
Getting to it. Nearly all of a single storey wall is within reach of a tower or trestles, a chalet bungalow with a dormer cheek is not, and a stack on the ridge is a scaffold whatever sits underneath it. How long the platform stands matters as much as how big it is, and the work at height rules make it a priced line.
The joints decide it, not the wall. Raking out by hand is slow, and on soft brick the only safe way, because a disc cutter widens the joint and takes the arris off. How deep the joints come back, and whether faces have already spalled, sets the hours far more than the area does. The mix matters as much: cement holds water against a soft brick and the face blows off in the first frost, while lime is the right answer on most pre-1919 walls here.
Comparing quotes? Ask how deep the joints are raked, by hand or by disc, what the mix is and whether it was matched, how many spalled bricks are cut out, and whether the scaffold is in. Two quotes for the same job are usually two different jobs.
If water is getting in
Open joints, and water coming through the wall
Ring rather than use the form. Joints washed out let driven rain straight through to the inside face, and penetrating damp on a chimney finds the flashings too. We look, sheet or temporarily point the worst if the weather is against us, and price the elevation once it has dried enough to see what is sound. Around here it is usually the south west gable or over a window head. Say which room the damp shows in and when, because that narrows down where we start. The phone is answered 24 hours for emergencies; scheduled work runs Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm.
Worth knowing
Why the trial panel matters more on a bungalow
On a two storey house most of the pointing is ten to twenty feet up and the eye reads it as texture rather than individual joints, so differences in colour disappear. On a single storey elevation, and four in ten homes here are single storey, the joint sits at eye height along the whole run. Everything shows: a sand with the wrong grain, a mix that dries a shade lighter, a profile struck flush where the rest of the wall is bucket handle. That is why we will not skip the panel, even on a small job.
Two things follow. Judge the panel on how it will look weathered, not the day it goes on. And if you are doing part of an elevation, decide where the work stops before it starts. A repair ending in the middle of a wall reads as a patch forever, where a corner, a downpipe or a change of level lets the eye accept it. We mark those breaks on the photographs with the quote.
Who you are dealing with
A local firm you can check
We cover Bashley, New Milton, Ashley, Wootton, Sway and out towards Barton on Sea and Bransgore, broadly BH25, with planning here under the New Forest National Park Authority. You are dealing with Bournemouth Roofing & Building, the trading name of 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 prices every job himself. A verified customer's 10 out of 10 on Checkatrade. The site visit and the written quote are free.
Questions
Bashley questions we get asked
How close will new mortar look next to a thirty year old joint?
Close enough that you stop noticing it, if the sand and the profile are right. Colour is the easy part and the least important: the grain of the sand and the way the joint is struck do more of the work. We put up a panel so you are judging a real joint on your own wall rather than a swatch.
Can you point half an elevation without it showing?
Only if it stops somewhere the eye expects. Halfway along a blank wall always looks like a patch, however good the match. At a corner, a downpipe or a porch return it disappears. We agree those break points at the survey, and if there is nowhere sensible to stop we say the whole face is the honest answer.
The house was built in the nineties. Is it too new to need repointing?
Not necessarily, though it is usually the chimney and the exposed gable rather than the whole house. Modern brickwork fails quietly: the mortar shrinks at the edge of the joint, the perpends open first, and the pointing lets go while still looking solid. Tap along a course and listen for a hollow note.
Which joint profile should go back on our wall?
The one already there, unless there is a reason to change it. Weather struck sheds water off the joint and is what most brickwork here carries. Bucket handle is compacted and hard wearing. Flush and slightly recessed belong on older, softer walls. Changing profile changes the shadow line down the whole elevation.
Does the National Park have a say in what mortar we use?
Only if the building is listed or the work changes how it looks from outside. Repointing in the same mortar and profile is maintenance and needs nothing. The National Park Authority rather than the district council is the one to ask here, which catches people out, and we will make the enquiry for you.
Nearby, and next door
Repointing near Bashley
Repointing nearby
Our other trades in Bashley
Everything we do in New Milton Repointing, all areas Every area we cover
Free quote
See the mortar on your own wall first
Thomas comes out, tests the joints, takes a sample to match and puts up a trial panel before anything is committed to. The visit and the quote are free.