Bere Regis repointing, brick and flint

Flint and brick 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 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 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 village 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 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 rather than 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.

No rate per square metre, because the square metres tell you almost nothing until somebody has looked at the joints.

Getting to it. A flint and brick cottage on the street, a barn wall in a yard and a tall boundary wall running along a lane are three different set ups before a joint is opened. How long the platform stands matters as much as how big it is, and the work at height rules are why access is a priced line rather than one absorbed into a rate.

The joints decide it, not the wall. Raking out by hand is slow, and on soft brick it is the only safe way. How deep the joints come back, and whether the faces have already spalled, sets the hours far more than the area does.

Matching is the part that shows. Too strong a mix is the classic mistake: cement holds water against a soft brick and the face blows off in the first hard frost. Lime is slower to work and to cure, and it is the right answer on most pre-1919 walls.

Two quotes for the same job are usually two different jobs, so ask each one how deep the joints are raked and whether the scaffold is in the price.

We cover Bere Regis, Winterborne Kingston, Briantspuddle, Wool and out towards Wareham, broadly BH20, under Dorset Council. You are dealing with Bournemouth Roofing & Building, the trading name of Bournemouth Roofing & Building Ltd, registered in England and Wales, company number 15471719. 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.