Repointing in Canford Heath

Checking the joints first. Pointing on Canford Heath houses of this age was cement mortar, finished flush or with a bucket handle or weather struck joint. It lasts well, but on the wettest walls it cracks away from the brick, lets water in behind, and then goes friable and crumbling. Hollow or loose pointing sounds different when tapped, and we mark it up before pricing.

Raking out. Joints are raked out to a depth of roughly twice their height, so the new mortar has something to grip. Hard cement is cut out carefully, mostly by hand, with a small disc cutter or angle grinder only where the mortar is too hard to shift otherwise, and only in the joint, never into the brick arris. Then the joints are brushed out and the wall is damped down so it does not suck the water out of the new mortar.

Repointing. We fill the joints in two passes where they are deep, pressing the mortar well in, and finish to match the profile on the rest of the house. The mix is a cement, lime and sand gauge chosen to be a little weaker than the brick, so any future movement cracks the joint and not the face. Lime putty and NHL mortars matter on the old solid wall and period houses of Poole, Victorian and Edwardian, where the wall needs to be breathable. Here, with modern fired bricks in a cavity wall, a cement based mix is the right choice.

Matching colour and texture. The colour of the sand makes more difference than anything else. We mix a small trial panel in a corner so you can see it dry before we carry on. Fresh pointing always looks bright at first and tones down with weathering.

Spalled bricks. Where a brick face has spalled from frost, or a soft brick has crumbled, we cut it out and replace it with a matched brick before repointing around it.

Terraces, courts and closes. Many houses in Canford Heath are in short terraces or pairs, built together with the same brick and the same mortar, so they tend to wear out together. Where two or three neighbours want their front elevations done, one scaffold along the row does all of them, with a separate quote for each owner. On a maisonette block, the outside walls belong to the freeholder, and the work goes through whoever manages it.

When we would say no. A few hairline cracks in sound, hard pointing do not need the whole wall doing. If only the gable or one elevation has failed, that is all we price.

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 detached Canford Heath house with a tall gable, a semi where the side wall runs along a narrow passage, and a bungalow whose walls can be done from a low tower each need different access. 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. On the seventies and eighties brick of Canford Heath, that means a cement and lime mix gauged to match what is in the joints, never a stronger one.

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. The totals mean more once those points are settled.

We cover Canford Heath and the streets around it, from Gravel Hill across to Tower Park, and out to Creekmoor, Oakdale and Broadstone. BCP Council is the local authority, and our base in Boscombe is about six miles away.

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 Heath, you can read our customers' Google reviews, word for word, on our reviews page.

Most repairs in Canford Heath 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.