Repointing in Burley, inside the conservation area
Mortar is appearance here as well as repair, so we agree the mix and the joint profile with you, and with the National Park, before anything is opened up.
The site visit is free and so is the written itemised quote. Thomas Hannen prices every job himself.
Burley has a conservation area of its own and sits inside the New Forest National Park, so on any wall visible from the road the mortar is a question of appearance as well as repair. Settle the mix and the joint profile before anybody opens a joint.
The calls are much the same year to year. A cottage frontage where the joints have weathered back behind the face of the brick. A chimney shedding grit into the gutter. Brick faces flaking in thin plates under a sill. And somebody told they need permission who cannot work out who to ask.
None of it means a wall coming down. It is all mortar, and on the older properties the mortar is what keeps the wall dry. The site visit surveys every elevation rather than the one you noticed, scrapes joints to see how deep the decay runs, taps courses for the hollow note that means the pointing has parted from the brick, takes a sample of sound original mortar, and photographs the lot. The written itemised quote comes back elevation by elevation and costs nothing.
The work
What we get called out to on village brickwork
Old solid wall, pointed in lime. The older cottages here are solid wall with no cavity, breathable by design: rain soaks into the outer face and evaporates back out through the joint. That works only while the mortar stays softer than the brick. We rake those joints by hand to about twice the joint width, perpends included, damp down, and point back in an NHL lime or lime putty mix gauged to the original for sand, colour and texture. The angle grinder stays in the van: a disc cutter widens the joint and takes the arris off a soft brick.
Hard cement pointing on a soft wall. Plenty of period property here was repointed at some stage in sand and cement, because hard sounds like it lasts. It traps water in the wall, so moisture leaves through the brick face and a frost takes the face off in flakes. The giveaway is a wall where the joints look untouched and the bricks are crumbling. Cutting that mortar back out by hand is slow and the only repair that fixes it.
Chimney stacks, flaunching and parapets. Burley sits high and open, and a stack takes weather on four sides with a cold flue up the middle. Its joints go loose and friable years before anything at ground level, and the penetrating damp shows as a patch on a bedroom ceiling rather than a wall. We repoint the stack, cut out the frost damaged bricks and renew the flaunching. That wants a scaffold rather than a tower and is priced as its own line.
Later cavity brickwork. The newer properties around the village are a single skin of fired brick in cement and sand, weather struck or bucket handle. Those erode back at the arris rather than washing out, and frost lifts the surface off. Matching means matching the sand and the gauge as well as the colour, because a lot of the earlier mixes carried lime.
Spalled faces, cut out and replaced. Where a face has blown we cut the brick out whole and turn or replace it against a sample held on the wall, rather than filling the hollow with mortar, which never matches. On a conservation area frontage that sourcing matters, so a trial panel goes up for you to judge in daylight.
Garden and boundary wall joints. A free standing wall gets weather on both faces and on the top, and once the coping bed has opened, water gets in, freezes and pushes the wall apart. Repointing it early is small work. What we will not do is point over movement: cracking that steps through the courses cannot be fixed with a mortar joint.
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. The quote is itemised rather than a figure on the back of a card: access, raking out, the mortar mix, the area of each elevation, brick replacement and disposal all on separate lines.
Nothing is left open overnight. The site is swept at the end of each day rather than the end of the job, and what comes out leaves with us. 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. What is controlled here is appearance, and the village has a conservation area of its own. There are seven listed entries in the area, and on a listed building the mortar is protected fabric, so listed building consent comes before a joint is opened. The National Park publishes its own heritage and conservation guidance. We check an address first.
Cost
What decides the price of a repointing job
No rate per square metre: the square metres tell you almost nothing until somebody has looked at the joints.
Getting to it. A cottage on the green with a tall stack, a two storey gable catching everything off the open ground, and a low garden wall are three different set ups. A chimney or gable wants a scaffold, a low wall a tower or nothing at all. How long the platform stands matters as much as how big it is, and the work at height rules make it a priced line.
The joints decide it, not the wall. Raking out by hand is slow, and on soft brick the only safe way, because a disc cutter widens the joint and takes the arris off. How deep the joints come back, and whether faces have already spalled, sets the hours far more than the area does. The mix matters as much: cement holds water against a soft brick and the face blows off in the first frost, while lime is the right answer on most pre-1919 walls here.
Comparing quotes? Ask how deep the joints are raked, by hand or by disc, what the mix is and whether it was matched, how many spalled bricks are cut out, and whether the scaffold is in. Two quotes for the same job are usually two different jobs.
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 penetrating damp on a chimney finds the flashings too. We look, sheet or temporarily point the worst if the weather is against us, and price the elevation once it has dried enough to see what is sound. Up here it is nearly always the south west face or the chimney, because there is little shelter from that direction. Say which side of the building the damp is on when you ring. The phone is answered 24 hours for emergencies; scheduled work runs Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm.
Worth knowing
Who you actually ask, and what they are looking at
The first thing worth knowing is that the National Park Authority, not New Forest District Council, is the planning authority for Burley. People ring the district, get passed around, and conclude that nobody minds what happens to their wall. What the Authority looks at is appearance. Repointing a wall exactly as it was, in the same mortar and struck to the same profile, is maintenance and needs nothing. Repointing it in a different colour, a different sand or a different profile changes how the building reads from the road, and inside a conservation area that is not automatically maintenance. On a listed property the mortar itself is protected fabric and consent comes before the work.
The practical steps are short. Check where your address sits using the National Park interactive property map before you agree a specification with anybody. Get the mortar mix and the joint profile written into the quote as their own lines. Ask for a trial panel. We do all three as a matter of course and will make the enquiry for you. If you turn out to be outside the boundary and unlisted, none of that changes: the wall still wants a mortar softer than the brick and a joint struck the way it was built.
Who you are dealing with
A local firm you can check
We cover Burley, Bransgore, Sopley, Ringwood, Hangersley and across towards Bashley and Christchurch, broadly BH24 and BH23, with planning in the village under the New Forest National Park Authority. 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 prices every job himself. A verified customer's 10 out of 10 on Checkatrade. The site visit and the written quote are free.
Questions
Burley questions we get asked
Does repointing a cottage in Burley need permission?
Not if it goes back the same. Like for like repointing is repair, and repair is not development, so there is nothing to apply for. It changes if the building is listed, where consent comes first, or if the work would alter the look of a visible elevation, which inside the conservation area is a different question.
Why is the National Park involved rather than the district council?
Because the National Park Authority holds the planning function inside the Park boundary, and Burley is inside it. The instinct is to ring the district council, and that wastes more time here than anything else. The Authority publishes a property map you can check an address against.
Our front was pointed in cement years ago. Does it have to come off?
It does not have to, but on a soft old wall it usually should. A hard joint stops the wall breathing, so water leaves through the brick face and frost takes the face with it. If the bricks are flaking, taking the cement out is the repair. If the wall is dry and the faces sound, we leave it.
How do we find out what the original joint profile was?
Look where the weather has not reached. Under a deep eaves, behind a downpipe or inside a porch there is usually a length of joint that has kept its original shape. That is what we match to, and what we photograph and put in the quote.
Is lime pointing worth the extra time it takes?
On a solid wall built in lime, yes, because it is the only mortar that lets the wall do what it was built to do. It is slower to work, slower to cure, and has to be protected from frost and drying sun. What you get is a joint that gives way gently in thirty years rather than a brick face that blows off in three.
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Find out what your wall needs, and what needs asking
Thomas comes out, tests the joints on every elevation, takes a sample to match and puts the price in writing, itemised. The visit and the quote are free.