Repointing in Bransgore, lime and cement both
Nearly one home in five here is older than the cavity wall, so the first job on any quote is working out which sort of wall you own.
The site visit is free and so is the written itemised quote. Thomas Hannen prices every job himself.
The two commonest walls in Bransgore want opposite mortars. A pre-1919 solid wall needs a soft, breathable lime mix; a 1970s cavity wall needs a gauged cement one. Point either in the other's mortar and you will be cutting brick faces out within a few winters.
People ring us about the same handful of things. Joints on a cottage weathered back far enough to put a finger into. Brick faces flaking below a sill while the pointing next to them looks untouched. A garden wall dropping mortar and a coping that rocks. Or a damp patch upstairs that only appears after a long wet spell.
All of that is mortar work rather than bricklaying, and the first thing worth knowing is the age of the wall. We measure the wall at a reveal, look at the bond, scrape and tap a few joints on each elevation, and photograph what is there. Only then is there anything sensible to say about a mix.
You get it back in writing, itemised and split elevation by elevation, with the faces we would leave alone marked as such. If a wall is sound and somebody has told you otherwise, we will say so. The visit and the quote are free.
The work
Two kinds of wall, and the repair each one wants
First, working out which wall you have. Measure the wall at a window reveal: much over a foot and it is probably solid wall. Look at the bond, because a solid wall shows headers, the short ends of bricks, at regular intervals while a cavity skin is stretchers throughout. Press a key into the joint: an old lime joint powders away to sand, a cement joint comes out in hard lumps.
Solid wall, pointed back in lime. Getting on for one home in five in Bransgore predates 1919 and has no cavity behind the brick. A wall like that keeps water out by letting it evaporate back through the joint, which only works while the mortar stays softer and more permeable than the brick. Those come out by hand to roughly twice the joint width, never with a disc cutter, and go back in an NHL lime or lime putty mix gauged to the original sand. The joints are damped down, filled and brushed off, and the finish is normally flush or slightly recessed rather than weather struck.
Cavity brickwork from the seventies onwards. Around half the village went up between 1945 and 1982, the busiest stretch being the 1970s. That is a single skin of hard fired brick in a cement and sand mortar, struck weather struck or bucket handle. It fails differently: the joint pits and opens at the arris rather than washing out, and once rain stands in the recess a frost lifts the face off the brick. It wants a gauged mix of similar strength going back in, not lime.
The wall that has had both. The one we get called to most is an old solid wall that somebody pointed in sand and cement thirty years ago. A hard joint on a soft wall stops the wall breathing, so moisture and salts leave through the brick face instead and the faces spall while the joints still look sound. The repair is to take the cement out carefully and put a matched lime mix back, cutting out and replacing the faces that have gone.
Listed cottages and outbuildings. There are thirteen listed entries in and around Bransgore, among them thatched cottages, a farmhouse with an attached barn and the parish church. On a listed building the mortar is part of what is protected, so a change of mix, colour or joint profile is not a free decision. We sample and photograph the existing joint before anything comes out.
Stacks, spalled faces and garden walls. A chimney takes weather on four sides with nothing warming it from inside, so its joints go friable and open long before the walls below, and the penetrating damp that follows lands on a ceiling. Blown brick faces get cut out and replaced against a sample rather than filled. Free standing garden walls have weather on both faces and usually a coping that has lost its bedding.
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 your work out. The quote is itemised: access, raking out, the mortar mix, the area of each elevation, brick replacement and disposal on separate lines.
Nothing is left open overnight. The site is swept at the end of each day, and what comes out leaves with us. If something turns up that nobody could have seen, you get a photograph and a price before we carry on.
Repointing like for like is repair rather than development, so there is no planning application and nothing for building control to sign off, as the Planning Portal guidance on external walls confirms. Bransgore has no conservation area of its own, but there are thirteen listed entries in and around the village, and on a listed building the mortar forms part of the protected fabric: changing the mix, the colour or the joint profile needs listed building consent from New Forest District Council before a joint is opened.
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 what the joints are actually like.
Getting to it. A detached house with a stack on the ridge, a single storey cottage a tower will reach, and a free standing garden wall along a lane are three separate set ups. A chimney or a gable wants a scaffold, and how long the platform stands matters as much as how big it is. Access under the work at height rules is a priced line, not absorbed into a rate.
The joints decide it, not the wall. How deep the joints have to come back, and whether the faces have already spalled, sets the hours far more than the area does. Hand raking is slow, but a disc widens the joint and takes the arris off.
Matching is the part that shows. Too strong a mix holds water against a soft brick and the face blows off in the first hard frost. Lime is the right answer on most pre-1919 walls here.
Comparing quotes? Ask how deep the joints are raked and by hand or 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 straight through to the inside face, and on a chimney it finds the flashings as well. 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. Out here the elevation that lets go is nearly always the one facing south west, because there is very little between it and the weather. The phone is answered 24 hours for emergencies; scheduled work runs Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm.
Worth knowing
One lane, two right answers
The older buildings here are not gathered in one place. They sit along the lanes, a cottage or a former farm building at a time, with detached houses from the 1960s and 1970s built in the gaps between them. So on a single lane you can have two properties fifty yards apart that want opposite mortars, and neither owner is wrong about their own house.
That matters because most people take their advice from a neighbour, and here the neighbour is often talking about a different kind of wall. Ask whoever is pricing the work what mix they intend to use and why, and listen for an answer about your wall rather than about their usual practice. A quote that says lime on everything is as much a warning sign as one that says sand and cement on everything.
Who you are dealing with
A local firm you can check
We cover Bransgore, Burley, Sopley, Hinton, Thorney Hill and across to Christchurch and Highcliffe, broadly BH23 and BH24, with planning under New Forest District Council. 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 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.
Questions
Bransgore questions we get asked
How do we tell whether our Bransgore cottage is solid wall or cavity?
Measure the thickness at a window or door reveal. A solid wall in this stock is usually around nine inches of brick with nothing behind it; a cavity wall is thicker overall but the outer skin is a single brick. Then look at the face: a solid wall shows headers at regular intervals in the bond, while a cavity skin is stretchers throughout. We check both on the visit and tell you which you have before pricing.
Someone pointed our old wall in sand and cement years ago. Can that be put right?
Usually yes, and it is worth doing if the brick faces are already going. The cement is cut out by hand, slowly, because the point is to remove it without taking the arris off the brick either side. A matched lime mix goes back in and the faces that have spalled are cut out and replaced. It is patient work rather than difficult work.
Is lime mortar less hard-wearing than cement?
It is softer, which is the point. On a solid wall the mortar is meant to be the sacrificial part, so that water and salts leave through the joint rather than through the brick face. A lime joint weathers back over decades and can be renewed. A cement joint on the same wall survives perfectly while the bricks around it lose their faces.
Our cottage is listed. Does repointing it need consent?
If anything about the appearance or the material is changing, yes, because on a listed building the mortar counts as part of the protected fabric. A genuine like for like repair in the same mix, colour and profile is normally treated as maintenance, but that judgement is the council's rather than ours. We photograph and sample the existing joint before anything is opened up.
Do you cover the lanes out towards Burley and Sopley?
Yes. Bransgore, Burley, Sopley, Thorney Hill and the Hinton lanes are all inside the area we work in, and the distance does not change the price of the mortar. What it can change is how we schedule, so a small job out that way may be booked alongside another in the same week.
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Find out which wall you own before you buy a mortar
Thomas comes out, measures the wall, scrapes a joint on each elevation and puts the price in writing, itemised, at no cost to you.