Lime repointing in Cranborne

Cranborne walls need repointing through age or through a bad earlier repair. Age shows as a joint washed out behind the face of the brick, sand collecting at the foot of the wall, mortar friable enough to crumble under a key. A bad repair shows as an elevation pointed in a hard sand and cement mix at some point in the last few decades, the brick faces beside it now flaking while the joints look untouched.

Both are mortar work and neither means the wall is in trouble. What they mean is that the mix matters more than the schedule. We look at every elevation of a Cranborne house, test joints with a key, tap the courses for the hollow note that says the pointing has parted from the brick, take a sample of the soundest original mortar we can find, and photograph what is there before anything is touched. That comes back as a written itemised quote, elevation by elevation, free.

Raking out is done by hand. Joints come back to twice their width, deeper where the mortar behind is soft. On old brickwork an angle grinder is not a shortcut but damage: it widens the joint, wanders off the line and takes the arris off the brick, and once an arris has gone no pointing puts it back. Perpends are worked with a plugging chisel. Everything is brushed out and damped down before a trowel goes near it.

Choosing the mix. A natural hydraulic lime is graded by how much set it has, and the right grade on a sheltered elevation is not the right one on a wall taking driven rain off open country. Lime putty gauged with a well graded sand is softer still, and right on the most porous handmade brick. The rule that never changes is that the mortar must be weaker and more permeable than the brick, so that when the wall takes water the joint gives up rather than the brick face.

Cement pointing, taken off. Where a solid Cranborne wall has been pointed in sand and cement, the joint has stopped a breathable wall breathing. The moisture that used to leave through the mortar leaves through the brick instead, and the first hard frost lifts the face away. Removing a hard mix without chipping the edges is slow, quiet work with hand tools, and it reverses the damage rather than covering it.

The joint profile. Old brickwork in Cranborne is generally struck flush or very slightly recessed, following the face of the brick. A weather struck or heavily recessed joint on a period frontage reads wrong, and a ribbon of mortar standing proud of the brick, which happens when a wall is pointed over rather than raked out, is the worst thing done to a building like this. If a wall has had that treatment we take it off; working over it only hides the damage.

Spalled faces. Where a brick face has blown we cut it out whole and turn it if the back is sound, or replace it against a sample from the wall. Filling the hollow with mortar makes a patch that never matches and drops out within a few winters.

Chimneys and flaunching. A Cranborne stack takes weather on four sides with nothing warming it from inside, so its joints wash out first and the penetrating damp that follows shows as a stain on a ceiling. Pointing a stack, cutting out frost damaged bricks and renewing the flaunching round the pots want the same platform and one visit.

Thomas looks closely at every elevation, scratches out a few joints to see how soft they are, and sets the price himself. Raking out is done by hand on every elevation.

The written quote itemises access, raking out, the lime mix, the area of each elevation, brick replacement and disposal.

Old Cranborne walls are mostly lime pointed, often around flint as well as brick. We rake by hand to an even depth, brush and dampen the joints, and point back in lime matched to the original for colour and grit. You approve a sample panel first. Lime must not dry too fast, so fresh work is hung with damp hessian in sun or wind and sheeted against frost. The scaffold is tidied each evening, paths and windows are kept clean, and old mortar goes with us. A cracked brick or loose flint found in an opened joint is photographed and priced for you first.

Like for like repointing is repair, with no planning application. On a listed building the mortar is protected fabric, and a new mix, colour or joint profile needs listed building consent before a joint is opened. Cranborne is in the Cranborne Conservation Area, so check any change of appearance with Dorset Council. Nearby, we also point in Alderholt and Verwood.

Damp on an inside wall after rain is worth noting down: where it is, and which way the wall faces. Washed out joints let wind driven rain straight through, and on a chimney the water works round the flashings. On a Cranborne house the wall facing open country usually goes first.

We sheet the worst or point it temporarily on the first visit, and price the whole elevation once it has dried enough to judge. On a listed building, emergency work is sheeting only, because temporary mortar would have to come off without a mark. We repoint Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm. With water getting in, call instead of using the form, and if we miss you we call back.

Call now: 07435 839745

In a village with listed buildings in the parish, and inside the Cranborne Conservation Area, the mortar on your wall is not only a technical choice. It shows anyone looking what the building was. Once a joint is raked out that record is gone, and if the work turns out to have needed consent there is nothing left to show what the original was like. That is why we check the address with Dorset Council first.

So the sequence matters. Before a chisel goes into a wall here, photograph the existing joints close up in daylight, keep a lump of sound original mortar from somewhere sheltered, and note the profile the joints are struck to. Those three things take twenty minutes and they become the evidence for the specification, the basis for matching the sand, and the answer if a conservation officer asks what was there before. It is also what makes a trial panel meaningful: the panel is judged against the sample, not a colour chart. We do all of it as a matter of course and leave you the photographs.

Nearby places we also cover for repointing, with straight-line distances from Cranborne, and the other trades we offer in Cranborne itself.

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