Repointing in Canford Cliffs

Flats in blocks, and large detached houses. Most homes in Canford Cliffs are flats, with large detached houses between the blocks, and much of the brick is laid in a cement based mortar. On a block the freeholder or managing agent orders the work, and a large job may need the leaseholders consulted under section 20 first. These walls rarely need repointing all over. What fails is the exposed face: a gable end, the chimney, and the wall below a leaking gutter.

We rake those joints out to a proper depth and repoint in a mix that matches the original in strength and colour, with the joint finish, flush, weather struck or bucket handle, matched to what is there. One elevation is typically a few days.

The older villas. A small number of houses in Canford Cliffs are earlier, with solid walls and softer bricks laid in lime. Those walls are breathable: they manage damp by letting it out through the joints. Repoint them in hard cement and the moisture leaves through the brick face instead, which blows off in the next frost. On these we use a natural hydraulic lime, NHL, and rake out by hand.

Raking out properly. Joints come out to at least twice their height, back to sound mortar. On soft or old brick that is done by hand with a plugging chisel, because an angle grinder or disc cutter widens the joint and takes the arris off the brick either side. On hard modern brick a disc is fine if the operator is careful. The wall is brushed out and damped down before the new mortar goes in, then kept from drying too fast.

Chimneys and garden walls. These are where joints fail first, because they are wet on both sides. A chimney repoint is a scaffold job, and our roofers can check the flashing while it is up. Garden walls under the pines stay damp and green, and crumbling joints near the top usually mean the coping has failed too. Where bricks have spalled, we cut them out and replace them before repointing.

Matching. Houses in Canford Cliffs come in many shades of brick, often mixed with render. We mix a trial panel so you can see the colour and texture once it is dry, and adjust the sand until it blends with the weathering on the rest of the wall. If a wall needs more than pointing, rebuilding goes on the quote too.

No rate per square metre, because the square metres tell you almost nothing until somebody has looked at what the joints are actually like.

Getting to it. A garden wall you can reach from the path, a gable on a detached house above a sloping garden and the end wall of a block of flats are three very different access jobs. A chimney or a gable wants a scaffold, a boundary wall wants nothing at all. How long the platform stands matters as much as how big it is, and the work at height rules are why it is a priced line rather than something absorbed into a rate.

The joints decide it, not the wall. Raking out by hand is slow, and on soft brick it is the only safe way, because a disc widens the joint and takes the arris off either side. How deep the joints have to come back, and whether the faces have already spalled, sets the hours far more than the area does.

Matching is the part that shows. 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 is slower to work and slower to cure, and it is the right answer on most pre-1919 walls in Canford Cliffs.

Comparing quotes? Ask how deep the joints are being raked and whether by hand or by disc, what the mortar mix is and whether it has been matched to what is there, how many spalled bricks are being cut out and replaced, and whether the scaffold is in the price. Get those answers in writing before comparing totals.

We cover Canford Cliffs, from Haven Road and the village down to Cliff Drive and the chines, and on into Branksome Park, a little over four miles from our base in Boscombe. BCP Council is the planning authority for BH13.

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. Before you book a visit in Canford Cliffs, you can read our customers' Google reviews, word for word, on our reviews page.

Most repairs in Canford Cliffs 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.