Repointing in Brockenhurst, inside the National Park
Joints raked by hand, a mix and a profile matched to what the wall already carries, and the conservation position checked before we quote.
The site visit is free and so is the written itemised quote. Thomas Hannen prices every job himself.
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Your joints are due when they have weathered back behind the brick, powder under a key, or let damp through after driving rain. Like for like repointing in Brockenhurst is maintenance and needs nobody's permission, but the village sits inside the New Forest National Park with a conservation area over its centre, so a new mortar colour or joint profile is a change of appearance to clear first. Cracked or blown bricks are a separate rebuilding item.
That sounds like a planning point and is really a specification point. Many of the older houses in the village were built before 1919, a good number of them before 1900, so plenty of walls in Brockenhurst are solid built in lime with the original joint still visible somewhere on the building. Get the mix and the profile right and the question of consent mostly answers itself.
What actually goes wrong is more ordinary. Grit collecting in a gutter under a tall stack. A dark stain creeping down a chimney breast in a bedroom. Joints on a gable you can put a car key into up to the knuckle. We look at the whole building, scrape joints at two heights, tap along a course for the hollow note that means the pointing has parted from the brick, and photograph every face. You get a written itemised quote back, elevation by elevation, free.
The work
Village brickwork, and the mortar it asks for
Pre-1900 solid walls in lime. These have no cavity, and they keep water out by letting it soak in and evaporate back out through the joint, which works only while the mortar is softer and more open than the brick.
Joints come out by hand to twice their width, never with a disc, and go back in an NHL lime or lime putty mix gauged to the original sand for colour, grain and texture. Where the original joint survives somewhere sheltered we copy it, which is both the right repair and the shortest route through any conservation question.
Big detached houses with long elevations and tall stacks. Many homes in Brockenhurst are detached, which means large houses standing on their own with nothing sheltering them and a stack you cannot see from the ground. A chimney weathers on four sides with nothing warming it from inside, so its joints go friable long before the walls do, and the penetrating damp that follows lands on a top floor ceiling. Repointing a stack and renewing the flaunching round the pots is work at height and wants a scaffold rather than a tower, so everything up there goes in one visit.
Cement pointing on soft brick. The commonest fault on the older Brockenhurst houses is a hard sand and cement joint applied in the last sixty years. It does not let the wall breathe, so the water leaves through the brick faces instead and frost takes them off. The giveaway is joints standing proud and hard with hollowed bricks between them. Taking it back out is patient hand work, priced on its own line.
Post-war cavity brickwork. Much of Brockenhurst went up between 1945 and 1982: a single outer skin of fired brick in a cement and sand mix, struck weather or bucket handle. It erodes at the arris rather than washing out, water stands in the open joint, and frost lifts the surface off in flakes. Matching means the sand and the gauge as well as the colour, and a trial panel goes up somewhere discreet for you to judge in daylight.
Spalled faces. Where a brick face has blown we cut it out whole and turn or replace it against a sample held on the wall. Filling the hollow with mortar leaves a patch that never matches and falls out within a couple of winters, and on a village frontage that patchwork is what everybody sees, so the replacement brick is agreed before we commit.
How it runs
Repointing in lime, one elevation at a time
About a quarter of Brockenhurst's homes were built before 1919, and on those a Victorian villa's chimney stacks, a south west facing gable or a cottage wall along the village street usually go first. Thomas comes and looks himself. He checks how far back the joints have gone and scratches one to see whether the old mortar is lime or a later cement repair.
The quote itemises access, raking out, the mortar mix, the area of each elevation, brick replacement and disposal. Joints are raked by hand, never with a disc on soft brick, and packed with a lime mortar matched to the colour and texture of the original. Fresh lime is covered with hessian against sun, wind and frost. Dust sheets go down and the waste leaves with us. If a brick falls apart when its joint is opened, we photograph it and price a replacement before going on.
Repointing like for like is repair, so there is no planning application and nothing for building control. If the look of the wall would change, the question goes to the New Forest National Park Authority, and its heritage guidance applies. We check the address, including any listing, before we price.
Cost
Hand raking and a matched lime mix
We never price by the square metre, because the area says very little until the joints have been looked at. Getting to it. A large detached house with two stacks and a long gable, a cottage with the pavement against its front wall, and a garden wall behind a hedge need three different platforms. How long a scaffold stands matters as much as its size, and the work at height rules make access a priced line.
Raking out. On soft brick, raking by hand is the only safe way. It is slow, and the depth, and whether the faces have spalled, decide the hours more than the area does.
The mix. 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, specified to BS EN 459, is slower to work and cure, and it is right on most pre-1919 walls, which is a big share of Brockenhurst.
Weather. Lime cannot go on in frost, so winter work may need protection or a wait for milder days.
Ask any quote how deep the joints are raked and with what, what the mix is and whether it matches, and whether the scaffold is in the price.
If water is getting in
Driven rain coming through a wall or round a stack
Washed out joints let driven rain straight through to the inside face, and at a chimney they let it reach the flashings. In Brockenhurst it is usually a stack or a gable facing south west on a tall house in the open.
Ring as soon as you see damp inside, not after the next wet spell, because a scaffold takes time to arrange. We come and look, sheet or temporarily point the worst of it, and price the full elevation once it has dried. Scheduled repointing runs Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm. Please phone instead of filling in the form, and if we miss you we call back.
Worth knowing
Two planning authorities, and only one of them is yours
Brockenhurst sits inside the New Forest National Park, and the National Park Authority is the planning authority for it rather than the district council. The village also has the Brockenhurst Conservation Area over its centre, and twenty three entries in the area are listed.
the National Park Authority sets out what it protects, and you can check whether an address is inside the conservation area or on the list using the Authority's interactive property map. That is the first thing we do before quoting here.
What it means for mortar is narrow and specific. Repair on a like for like basis is maintenance and needs nothing: same mix, same sand, same profile, same colour. A new profile, a new colour or a ribbon of mortar pushes a job over the line into a change of appearance. Going from a flush or slightly recessed joint to a weather struck one, or the other way round. Going from a lime coloured mortar to a grey cement one, which is by far the commonest. And ribbon pointing that stands out across the brick face. On a listed building, works that affect the character of a listed building need consent, and that includes the mortar, so consent comes before a joint is opened. We photograph the existing joint, agree the profile with you in writing before anything comes out, and put a sample panel up where it can be judged in daylight.
Who you are dealing with
Who rakes out your joints, and how to check them
Thomas Hannen owns the firm and comes to scratch the joints and price the job himself. From Boscombe it is 12.7 miles to Brockenhurst, and we repoint across SO42 and the SO41 villages next to it, including Sway, Boldre, Lyndhurst and out towards Beaulieu.
The National Park covers planning across that whole area. The company is Bournemouth Roofing & Building Ltd, registered in England and Wales, company number 15471719, and you can look it up on Companies House. On Checkatrade a verified customer rated us 10 out of 10. There is no charge to come out, and the written quote is free. Before you book a visit in Brockenhurst, you can read our customers' Google reviews, word for word, on our reviews page.
Planning at a glance
Do you need planning permission in Brockenhurst?
Most repairs in Brockenhurst 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.
| Question | In Brockenhurst |
|---|---|
| Who decides | New Forest National Park Authority is the planning authority for Brockenhurst. New Forest National Park Authority's heritage pages set out what it controls. |
| Conservation area | Yes: Brockenhurst Conservation Area and The Weirs Conservation Area. They cover parts of Brockenhurst, so check whether your street is inside one. |
| Listed buildings | Yes, there are listed buildings in and around Brockenhurst. If yours is one, work can need listed building consent. |
| Protected landscape | Inside the New Forest National Park, where design is looked at more closely and permitted development rights are narrower. |
Questions
Questions about repointing in Brockenhurst
Do we need permission to have our house repointed in Brockenhurst?
Not for like for like repair, which is maintenance. You need it where the appearance changes, and on a listed building the mortar counts as protected fabric, so a change of mix, colour or joint profile needs listed building consent first. Inside the conservation area it is worth a word with the Authority before the mixer is filled.
Who do we ask, the National Park or the district council?
The National Park Authority: Brockenhurst is inside the Park boundary, so planning matters go to the Authority, not New Forest District Council. Their property map will tell you whether your address is listed or in the conservation area.
What is the difference between a flush joint and a weather struck one?
A flush joint finishes level with the brick face. A weather struck joint is cut back at the top and left proud at the bottom so rain runs off. Older lime pointed walls in Brockenhurst are flush or slightly recessed and later cement work is weather struck or bucket handle, and swapping one for the other changes how the wall looks from the road.
Our bricks are soft and crumbling at the edges. Is repointing still worth doing?
Often yes, and the softness of the brick is what tells us which mortar to use. A soft handmade brick wants a mortar softer still, so the joint takes the weathering instead of the brick. Where a face has already gone we cut that brick out and replace it instead of filling it, and we say on the visit how many are involved.
How do you decide how deep to rake the joints?
By scraping a few and looking. The working rule is twice the width of the joint, but that is a starting point. Where the decay runs deeper the joint comes back until we reach sound mortar, checked as we go along a course rather than set for a whole elevation.
Nearby, and next door
Repointing near Brockenhurst
Nearby places we also cover for repointing, with straight-line distances from Brockenhurst, and the other trades we offer in Brockenhurst itself.
Repointing nearby
Our other trades in Brockenhurst
Repointing guides
Lime or cement mortar: which do you need? Reading a repointing quote: rake out Listed building consent for repointing and re-renderingEverything we do in Lymington Repointing, all areas Every area we cover
Free quote
Get the stack and the walls surveyed in one visit
Thomas comes out, checks the address against the Park's map, tests the joints and sends a written itemised quote with the access on its own line. Free.