Bere Regis repointing, brick and flint

In Bere Regis, flint and brick are laid together. Banded flint with brick courses running through it, brick quoins at the corners and brick around the openings is the old walling of this part of Dorset, and the parish church of St John the Baptist is the obvious example.

On a Bere Regis flint wall like that the mortar is most of the wall by volume and the only thing holding smooth impermeable stones together. It gets an NHL lime mix worked well back into the void in more than one pass, the surface brushed back to expose the face of the flint rather than skimmed over it, and small flint chips pressed into any joint too wide to fill cleanly.

Solid brick cottages, in lime. A solid wall in Bere Regis has no cavity behind the brick and sheds water only by letting it evaporate back out through the joint, so it has to stay breathable and the mortar softer and more open than the brick. Joints come out by hand to a depth of twice their width, the angle grinder stays in the van, and the mix is gauged to the original sand. They are damped down before filling and brushed back once the mix has taken up. The profile goes back to what the wall carries, usually flush or slightly recessed on a period village frontage rather than weather struck.

Cement pointing, and getting it off again. A lot of Bere Regis walling was repointed in sand and cement between the sixties and the nineties. On brick it traps water and blows the faces; on flint it is worse still, for the reasons set out further down. Removing it is careful hand work and shows as its own line on the quote.

Faces that have blown. Where the face of a brick has come off we cut it out whole and turn or replace it against a sample held on the wall, rather than filling the hollow with mortar, which never matches and drops out inside a couple of winters. Frost damage collects in the same places every time: under sills, beside downpipes and in the courses just above ground where a path has been laid up against the wall.

Stacks. A chimney in Bere Regis has weather on four sides and nothing warming it from inside, so its mortar goes friable while the house walls are still sound, and sand in the gutter is the first sign. That is work at height and wants a scaffold, not a tower, so everything up there goes in one go. What we will not do is point over movement: cracking that repeats every fifth or sixth course is not tired mortar.

The area of wall is the least useful number in a Bere Regis repointing quote. How far the joints have gone. Shallow weathering is a quick rake and fill. Joints washed back deep, or pointing that has come out in panels, take far longer, and every spalled brick replaced adds more.

Lime or cement. On soft old brick, lime is the right mortar. It lets the wall dry out and gives way before the brick does. A hard cement mix traps water and the face blows off in a frost. Lime is slower to lay and cure, and the price reflects that.

Removing old cement. Where someone has pointed over lime with cement, getting it out without damaging the brick is slow work, and nobody can say how slow until the first joints are opened.

Exposure. A south west elevation takes the driven rain, so it usually needs the most work and the longest protection while the mortar cures.

Access. A scaffold on a gable or chimney, or a tower on a boundary wall beside a lane, is priced as its own line under the work at height rules.

Before you accept any quote, ask how deep the joints will be raked and whether by hand, what the mortar is and how it was matched, and whether the scaffold is in the price.

Bere Regis is 17 miles from our base at Boscombe. We repoint across the village and the BH20 area around it, including Winterborne Kingston, Briantspuddle, Wool and Wareham, and Dorset Council deals with planning, listed buildings and building control.

The firm trading as Bournemouth Roofing & Building is Bournemouth Roofing & Building Ltd, registered in England and Wales, company number 15471719. Thomas Hannen runs it and comes out himself to look at the joints and give you a figure. We hold a 10 out of 10 from a verified customer on Checkatrade. You will not be charged for the visit or for the itemised quote in writing. Before you book a visit in Bere Regis, you can read our customers' Google reviews, word for word, on our reviews page.

Most repairs in Bere Regis 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.