Lime repointing on old brickwork in Breamore

Raking out, by hand. The older houses here are solid wall, one brick thick with nothing behind the face, and pre-1919 work like that only stays dry by staying breathable. Handmade brick from before the railways is soft and porous, and the joint is meant to be the part that gives. We cut the old mortar out with a chisel and a hacksaw blade to roughly twice the width of the joint, perpends as well as beds, and stop at sound material rather than at a mark on a tool. A disc cutter or an angle grinder never goes near a wall like this: it widens the joint permanently and takes the arris off the brick either side. Joints are damped down before filling and brushed back once the mix has taken up.

Deciding what comes off and what stays. Not every cement joint in the village needs taking out this year. Where the brick behind is already spalling, where the joint has washed out or gone crumbling and friable, or where it sounds hollow under a tap, it has to go, and so it must wherever penetrating damp is showing inside. Where a later elevation carries a sound cement joint and the faces behind it are still crisp, disturbing it can do more harm than leaving it. That judgement is made face by face with a key in hand, which is why the quote comes back elevation by elevation.

Matching the mix. A mortar match is a match of sand first and colour second. We take a sample of sound original from somewhere sheltered, look at the grain and colour range in it, and make up a trial panel on a discreet part of the wall in the mix we intend, usually an NHL lime or lime putty gauged against the original. You look at that dry and in daylight, because fresh mortar reads lighter than aged. The finish goes back to the profile the wall already has, on this stock usually flush or slightly recessed rather than the weather struck or bucket handle joint that belongs on later work.

Stacks and flaunching. A stack takes weather on four sides and has a cold flue up the middle, so it goes friable long before the walls do. Repointing above the roof line, cutting out perished brick and renewing the cracked flaunching that beds the pots is steady work here. On a listed building the stack goes back exactly as it was, so it is recorded and photographed before anything is opened.

Faces that have gone. Once a brick has lost its face, every frost takes another layer. We cut the unit out whole and bed a reclaimed brick of the right period in its place, laid so the bond reads correctly rather than as a patch. Sourcing is half of that job, and worth the fortnight it sometimes takes.

The head of a wall. On a free standing wall the coping is doing all the work. Once it has lost its bedding, water gets into the core and the wall comes apart from the top down. Rebedding coping and pointing the top courses first is the cheapest useful thing you can do to one.

No rate per square metre. The area tells you almost nothing until somebody has looked at the joints.

Getting to it. A cottage with a hedge tight against the gable, a stack standing in thatch and a low front wall are three different platforms before a joint is opened. 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.

We are in the Avon valley villages most weeks, covering Breamore, Woodgreen, Hale, Sandleheath and down into Fordingbridge, broadly SP6, with New Forest District Council as the planning authority. 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.