Repointing Blandford Forum's Georgian brickwork

Georgian and Victorian brick, pointed back in lime. The older streets are solid wall, one thickness of brick with no cavity behind it, and roughly a fifth of the town's housing predates 1919.

Such a wall only sheds water by evaporation through the joint, which works while the mortar stays softer and more open than the brick. We rake those joints by hand to about twice their width, never with an angle grinder, damped down and brushed out before filling. Back in goes an NHL lime or lime putty gauged to the original for sand, colour and texture, so the wall stays breathable. BS EN 459 is the standard the binder is bought against, so the quote names which lime is going in.

Taking hard cement pointing back out. A good share of the frontages in town were pointed in dense cement and sand in the last sixty years, and it is the commonest reason a Blandford Forum wall is in trouble. the case against hard cement on soft masonry reads plainly off the wall: the joint stands proud and looks almost new while the brick either side of it crumbles. Cutting it out of a soft joint is slow hand work with quirks and small chisels. Where the cement is thin and the brick behind is sound we take it out; where the arris has gone, we price the brick replacement with it.

Spalled faces, cut out rather than filled. Filling a blown face with mortar leaves a dark patch that never matches and drops out in a couple of winters. The brick comes out whole and is turned where the back is sound, or replaced against a sample held on the wall. Frost damage gathers under sills, beside downpipes and just above the damp proof course.

The joint profile, which is what people actually see. An older frontage in Blandford Forum was struck fine and close, flush or slightly recessed, and the width was part of the design. Put a weather struck joint on it and the wall reads as modern from across the road whatever the colour of the mix.

Terraces, parapets and stacks. Nearly a third of Blandford Forum is terraced, which puts shared parapet and shared stack over the pavement. Those joints go years before anything at eye level needs touching. Work over a footpath needs a licence and a signed platform, and on a shared stack the Party Wall etc. Act 1996 sets a notice period before cutting starts.

Postwar walls, where lime is the wrong answer. Better than a third of the housing in Blandford Forum is cavity work from 1945 to 1982, laid in cement and sand. Point one of those in soft lime because lime is what the town is known for and the joint erodes back within a decade.

The one job we turn down is pointing over movement. Cracking that steps along the joints every few courses is a footing or a corroded tie talking, and filling it hides that for a season.

Until someone has looked at the joints, the size of the wall tells you very little. Depth of wear. Light weathering means a quick rake and refill. Joints worn deep, or dropping out in lumps, take much longer, and each spalled brick replaced adds to it.

Lime for the Georgian fronts. Brick in the centre is soft, and lime mortar is what suits it, since it lets moisture out and yields before the brick does. It is slower to lay and slower to cure than cement.

Cutting out cement. Where an old repair put hard cement over lime, removing it without harming the faces is painstaking.

Later houses. Hard bricks in cement mortar on an estate house repoint faster, and a ground floor wall may need no scaffold at all.

Set-up. A tall front above the pavement, a cottage sharing a parapet and a garden wall at the back are three different set-ups, each priced under the work at height rules.

Hold every quote in Blandford Forum to the same questions. How far back will the joints be raked, and by hand? What is the mix, and how was it matched? How many bricks are being replaced? Is the scaffold included?

Blandford Forum is 16.8 miles from Boscombe, where we are based. We repoint in the town itself, Blandford St Mary, Bryanston, Pimperne, Stourpaine and the villages along the Stour, all in DT11 and all under Dorset Council.

Our registered company is Bournemouth Roofing & Building Ltd, in England and Wales, company number 15471719. Its owner, Thomas Hannen, comes to see the joints and prices each job himself. Checkatrade carries a 10 out of 10 from a verified customer. We make no charge for coming out, or for the written quote with its itemised lines. Before you book a visit in Blandford Forum, you can read our customers' Google reviews, word for word, on our reviews page.

Most repairs in Blandford Forum 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.