Repointing Blandford Forum's Georgian brickwork
Hard cement pointing taken back out, joints raked by hand and refilled in a matched lime, and blown brick faces cut out, across the town and along the Stour.
The site visit is free and so is the written itemised quote. Thomas Hannen prices every job himself.
On a Blandford frontage the mortar is more visible than the brick. The town was rebuilt in brick after the fire of 1731, its joints were struck fine and filled with a soft lime, and a wide grey cement joint changes the face of a building here even when the brickwork behind it is perfectly sound.
Four things bring people to ring us. Joints on a front elevation gone friable, crumbling under a key. A wall pointed at some stage in hard grey mortar that is now spalling brick faces round the patch. Penetrating damp on an inside wall, showing a day after the weather rather than during it. A parapet dropping sand and grit into the gutter every time it blows.
None of that needs a wall taken down. It is mortar, and nearly all of it is repairable one elevation at a time. The site visit is a survey rather than a look: every face gets gone over, joints are scraped to find how far back the decay goes, and courses are tapped for the hollow note that means the pointing has parted from the brick. You get a written itemised quote, elevation by elevation, with the faces we would leave for another few winters marked as such. The visit and the quote cost you nothing.
The work
The mortar work we get called to in town
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 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 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 the town 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 here 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.
How it runs
From your call to a written price
Same team from first visit to last, one person to ring, no sub-contracting. The quote is itemised: access, raking out, the mix, the area of each elevation, brick replacement and disposal on separate lines, so you can compare it against anyone else's.
Nothing is left open overnight and the site is swept at the end of each day. If something turns up that nobody could have seen, you get a photograph and a price first.
Repointing like for like is repair rather than development, so there is no planning application and nothing for building control to sign off. In Blandford appearance is the whole point. There are 209 listed entries in and around the town, and on a listed building the mortar mix and the joint finish form part of the protected fabric, so listed building consent has to be in place before a joint is opened; section 7 of the 1990 Act makes doing it without consent an offence. The Blandford St Mary and Bryanston Conservation Area runs alongside the town, where a like for like repoint is maintenance and a change of colour or profile is not. We check an address before a mixer is filled.
Cost
What decides the price of a repointing job
No rate per square metre. The area tells you almost nothing until somebody has looked at the joints.
Getting to it. A three storey frontage straight onto the pavement, a terraced cottage sharing a parapet, and a garden wall at the back of a plot are three different set ups before a joint is raked. A chimney or a gable wants a scaffold; a boundary wall wants nothing. The work at height rules are why access is a priced line rather than a rate.
The joints decide it, not the wall. How deep they come back, and whether the faces have spalled, sets the hours far more than the area does.
Matching is the part that shows. Lime is slower to work and slower to cure, and right on most pre-1919 walls here.
Comparing quotes? Ask how deep the joints are raked and by hand or by disc, what the mix is and whether it was matched, how many spalled bricks are being replaced, and whether the scaffold is in the price.
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 through to the inside face, and on a chimney it finds the flashings. We come and look, sheet the worst if the weather is against us, and price the elevation once it has dried enough to see what is sound. In town that is usually a west facing gable or a parapet over the footpath. The phone is answered 24 hours for emergencies; scheduled work runs Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm.
Worth knowing
What the 1731 rebuild left you, and what the twentieth century did to it
Almost the whole of the town centre went up within twenty years of the fire of 1731, in brick, to one broad idiom. That matters for mortar: the original bedding and pointing across a great many buildings here came out of the same local pits and reads the same way, a soft lime with a coarse, sharp sand, struck fine so the brick does the talking. A sample off a sheltered wall very often reads close to what comes off the wall next door.
What has broken that is repointing done since. A hard cement mix over soft brick is the fault we see most, and next to it a joint refilled too wide, which fattens every line on the elevation. The useful question to put to anybody quoting is not what it costs a metre. It is what sand they are matching to, what binder and at what gauge, and what width and profile the finished joint will be. We make up a trial panel on a discreet part of the wall and you judge it in daylight.
Who you are dealing with
A local firm you can check
We cover Blandford Forum, Blandford St Mary, Bryanston, Pimperne, Stourpaine and the villages along the Stour, broadly DT11, under Dorset Council. You are dealing with Bournemouth Roofing & Building, trading name of Bournemouth Roofing & Building Ltd, company number 15471719. Thomas Hannen's business, and he prices every job himself rather than sending a salesman. A verified customer's 10 out of 10 on Checkatrade. The visit and the written quote are free.
Questions
Blandford Forum questions we get asked
Why would a harder mortar damage a softer brick?
Because the wall has to let water out somewhere. On a solid brick wall the joint is the softest, most open part, so damp leaves through the mortar and the mortar takes the wear. Point it in dense cement and the water leaves through the brick face instead, and frost lifts that face off. Pristine joints standing proud of ruined brickwork is the pattern here.
Can old cement pointing be taken off a Georgian front without wrecking the brick?
Usually, and it is careful hand work rather than machine work. Quirks and small chisels, taken back in stages, tested on a hidden section first. Where the cement has taken the arris off the brick either side, those bricks need cutting out, and we say so at the quote.
What joint finish belongs on a brick front in this town?
Whatever the building already carries, and on the older frontages that is a fine flush or slightly recessed joint rather than a weather struck one. The width matters as much as the shape: a joint refilled a few millimetres wider thickens every line on the elevation.
Is a different mortar colour something the council would care about?
On a listed building, yes. The mix and the finish are part of what is protected, so it wants listed building consent first, and that is weeks rather than days. In a conservation area a like for like repoint is maintenance, a visible change of appearance is not.
How long does lime take before it stops being fragile?
It carbonates slowly, over weeks rather than days, and the first fortnight needs looking after, protected from sun, wind, rain and anything near frost. The programme is set by the weather as much as by the size of the wall.
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Get the frontage looked at before another winter
Thomas comes out, scrapes a few joints, photographs each elevation and puts the price in writing, itemised, at no cost to you.