Repointing Christchurch brickwork

The old town, in lime. A fifth of the housing in Christchurch is pre-1919, concentrated in the streets between the Priory and the bridges. That is solid wall: soft handmade brick, no cavity, and a lime mortar always meant to be the sacrificial part. We rake those joints out by hand to about twice the width of the joint and put back an NHL lime or lime putty mix gauged and matched to the original. A disc cutter has no business on that brick: it widens the joint and takes the arris off either side. Joints are damped down before filling and brushed back once the mix has taken up. The profile goes back as found, usually flush or slightly recessed on a period frontage.

Terraces, parapets and shared stacks. A quarter of the homes here are terraced, and on a terrace the mortar that fails first is nearly always high up: the parapet, the chimney, and the joints either side of a shared valley. Those are cold and wet on every side, so the mortar goes friable years before the rest of the wall, and nobody looks until penetrating damp shows on a bedroom ceiling. Access is the honest cost, and above the eaves it is a scaffold rather than a tower. Where the stack or parapet is shared, we sort out who owns what before anything is raked.

Cement pointing on a wall that cannot take it. A great deal of the old town was repointed in sand and cement between the sixties and the eighties, and it is now doing damage. A hard joint stops the wall breathing, so moisture leaves through the brick instead and the faces blow off in the first sharp frost. Sound joints and crumbling bricks is the tell. Taking a hard mortar out of a soft wall is slow, careful hand work, and it is the only repair that stops it.

Blown faces and replacement bricks. Where a face has gone we cut the brick out and replace or turn it rather than filling the hollow. A match on a Christchurch frontage means reclaimed or handmade stock, a sample held against the wall and a trial panel you approve first, judged on how it will look after a couple of years of weathering. The newer estates towards Somerford and Jumpers are a different problem: modern brick in a strong mix does not wash out, but exposed gables pit at the joint and the odd face lifts, which is patch repointing rather than a whole elevation. Two kilometres from the water, the seaward side of anything here is the tired face.

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

Getting to it. A Georgian frontage straight onto the pavement in the old town, a terraced house with a shared parapet off Purewell and a detached eighties house at Somerford with one exposed gable are three quite different set ups. The work at height rules are why access is its own priced line.

The joints decide it, not the wall. Raking out by hand is slow, and on soft brick the only safe way: a disc widens the joint and takes the arris off. Depth, and whether faces have already spalled, sets the hours far more than 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 cures slower, and suits most pre-1919 walls here.

Comparing quotes? Ask how deep the joints are raked and by what, what the mix is, how many spalled bricks come out, and whether the scaffold is in the price. Two quotes for the same job are usually two different jobs.

The centre sits inside the Christchurch Central conservation area, and what is protected there is appearance. That matters more than it sounds when the job is repointing, because on a historic frontage the mortar is a bigger part of what you see than the brick. Joint width, joint profile and the colour of the sand give a street its character, and swapping a flush lime joint for a struck cement one changes the whole elevation even though not a single brick has moved.

Like for like repair is maintenance and needs nothing from anybody. Changing the appearance is where you ask first, and the council keeps the list of what falls inside the boundary. So, for an address in the centre: photograph the wall before anyone touches it, agree the profile and the sand in writing, and have a trial panel put up and looked at in daylight. If a quote does not name the mix and the finish, it is not a quote for work in a conservation area, and a wide grey band of modern mortar across a Castle Street frontage is very hard to undo.

We work across the old town and the Quay, Purewell, Stanpit, Somerford, Jumpers, Burton and out to Mudeford, broadly BH23, under Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council. You are dealing with Bournemouth Roofing & Building, the trading name of Bournemouth Roofing & Building Ltd, registered in England and Wales, company number 15471719. Thomas Hannen prices every job himself. A verified customer's 10 out of 10 on Checkatrade. The visit and the written itemised quote are free.