Ferndown repointing, bungalows to flats
Raking out and repointing on Ferndown gables, stacks, boundary walls and communal elevations, with the mix and the joint profile in writing.
The site visit is free and so is the written itemised quote. Thomas Hannen prices every job himself.
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Repointing in Ferndown
Nobody has to approve your mortar here
Your joints are due when they have weathered back behind the brick, crumble under a key, or sound hollow when you tap along a course. In Ferndown, from the bungalows to the blocks of flats, the job is a technical one: rake out the elevation that has actually gone and match the strength, sand and colour of the mortar already there, all written into the quote. Bricks that have cracked through are rebuilding work, priced separately.
The faults follow the housing stock. Bungalow gables and the long low walls that catch the south westerly, joints eroded back and gone friable. Chimney stacks on the older bungalows, mortar washed out of the top courses and water finding its way past the flashings. And blocks of flats, where an exposed corner or the brick panels under the windows have opened up.
There is very little pre-1919 brick in the town, so the lime argument that dominates the old towns barely reaches Ferndown. What does apply everywhere is matching. A mortar stronger than the brick it sits against will take the face off it at the first hard frost, whatever it happens to be made of.
We survey each elevation, say what wants doing this year and what does not, and put an itemised price in writing. The visit and the quote are free.
The work
Bungalow walls, flat blocks, and what fails on each
Bungalows, which are most of the town. Getting on for half the homes in Ferndown are bungalows. Same floor area, a great deal more wall at low level and much less of it out of reach, so a large share of a bungalow can be raked and pointed off a low tower rather than a full scaffold. The gable ends are the exception, and they are also where the weather lands.
Raking out, done properly. By hand, to about twice the width of the joint, so the new mortar has something to key into. A disc cutter is faster, widens the joint, takes the arris off either side and leaves a wall that looks worse in three years than the one it replaced. Joints are brushed out and damped down before the mix goes in, because a dry brick pulls the water straight out of fresh mortar and it never gains its strength.
The mix, matched rather than assumed. Late 1960s and 1970s brickwork was built in a cement gauge and gets a cement, lime and sand gauge back, matched on strength before colour. A period property on one of the older roads, solid wall, Victorian or Edwardian, gets a breathable NHL lime or a lime putty mix instead, because that wall dries through its joints. Either way we mix a sample, put a trial panel on a quiet elevation and look at it dry.
The joint profile. Weather struck sheds water off an exposed gable better than anything else. Bucket handle is what most of the estates were built with and is dense and hard wearing. Recessed looks sharp on a modern brick and is wrong on a soft one, because it leaves a ledge at every course. Flush is the safe middle. It is a decision, and it goes in the quote.
Flats and communal walls. Around three in ten homes in Ferndown are flats, and the outside walls belong to the block rather than to any one flat. We survey and price whole elevations and give the freeholder or the managing agent something they can work from, because a leaseholder cannot instruct pointing on a wall they do not own.
Spalled faces and boundary walls. Where frost has lifted the fired face off a brick it is cut out and replaced with a match, not filled. Low front walls, bin store walls and the returns beside a drive take water from the top down and are usually the hollow ones. Access on any of it is a separate line.
How it runs
Repointing Ferndown walls, raked and filled properly
Thomas visits, scratches out a few joints to gauge how deep the decay goes and how hard the brick is, then prices it. His quote lists access, raking out, the mortar mix, each elevation by area, replacement bricks and waste as separate lines. One company stays on it throughout.
Bungalow walls are mostly repointed from the ground or a tower, with a separate platform for a chimney. The taller elevations on a block of flats need scaffold, agreed with the managing agent. Joints are cut back to an even depth, brushed clean, dampened and packed in layers, then struck to match the existing profile. Windows and paths are sheeted, the ground is swept daily and the rakings are bagged for removal. A spalled brick or a cracked lintel found along the way is shown to you with a cost first.
Like for like repointing is maintenance: no planning permission, no building control and nothing to fill in. With no conservation area and only a handful of listed buildings in Ferndown, the constraint on an ordinary house is technical, not a matter of consent. For older buildings outside the town, including the conservation area at Hampreston, we check Dorset Council's listed building records first, because the answer changes what goes in the mixer.
Cost
What sets the price of repointing brick walls
We will not quote repointing per square metre. The joints decide the hours, not the area. Reach. A detached bungalow with a gable at each end needs a tower. A semi with the chimney on the party wall needs a platform round the stack, and a three storey block of flats needs full scaffold. The work at height rules set out what each needs, and the quote shows it.
Joint depth. Hand raking is slow, but with soft brick nothing else is safe, because a grinder widens the joint and chips the arris. How deep they go, and whether faces have already spalled, set the time.
Mortar. Over-strong mortar is the usual error. Cement traps water against the brick and frost then pops the face off. Most walls in Ferndown suit a sand and cement mix slightly weaker than the brick, while the odd older wall near the town wants lime, which cures more slowly.
Weather side. South west facing walls take the brunt of the rain, so their joints wear first and deepest.
Blocks. For flats, the managing agent instructs and the cost is recovered through the service charge.
Ask each firm how deep they rake and with what tool, what mix they use, how many bricks they allow for and whether scaffold is included.
If water is getting in
Washed-out joints letting rain into the wall
Ring us for this; the form will not be quick enough. With the mortar washed out, wind-driven rain soaks through to the plaster, and round a chimney it creeps behind the flashings as well. In Ferndown it tends to be a bungalow gable or a stack on the south west side.
Tell us where the damp is showing inside and pull furniture away from that wall. First we look, then either sheet it or point the worst joints as a stopgap, and cost the whole elevation when it has dried. Repointing is booked for weekdays between 8am and 6pm. If nobody answers, Thomas calls you back as soon as he can.
The one local thing
No conservation area, very little listed, and no excuses
Ferndown town is unusual on this patch. There is no conservation area over the town itself, and its listed buildings are few, Holy Cross Abbey at Stapehill among them; the parish's only conservation area covers the separate hamlet of Hampreston. Almost everywhere else nearby has far more of both, and on those addresses the mortar colour and the joint finish can become somebody else's decision.
That is useful to know. On an ordinary house nobody will ask you for listed building consent, no planning officer has a view on your joint profile, and no building control application is involved in a repair. But it cuts both ways. When the council has no opinion on your mortar, nothing outside the contract stops a firm pointing your wall in whatever is in the mixer that morning, and your only protection is what is written down.
So ask for the mix by name, the profile by name, and a trial panel before the rest of the elevation follows. On a Ferndown wall the specification is a question about the brick and the exposure rather than about heritage, and it should still be answered on paper.
One caveat. The area we cover does not stop at the town sign, and West Parley, Longham and the older lanes towards Wimborne do contain listed buildings and conservation area frontages. If your address is out that way, ask; do not assume the Ferndown answer covers it. We check as part of the survey either way.
Who you are dealing with
Who repoints walls from Stapehill to Verwood
We repoint in Ferndown, West Parley, Longham, Stapehill, West Moors and Verwood, in BH22 and the postcodes round it. Ferndown is a drive of 5.9 miles from our base in Boscombe, and Dorset Council is the council for all of it.
Your contract is with Bournemouth Roofing & Building Ltd, which Companies House lists as registered in England and Wales under company number 15471719. Thomas Hannen, who owns the firm, comes out, checks the joints and prices every job himself. Checkatrade shows a 10 out of 10 from one verified customer. We make no charge to come out, and the written quote listing each item is free. Before you book a visit in Ferndown, you can read our customers' Google reviews, word for word, on our reviews page.
Planning at a glance
Do you need planning permission in Ferndown?
Most repairs in Ferndown 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.
| Question | In Ferndown |
|---|---|
| Who decides | Dorset Council is the planning authority for Ferndown. Dorset Council's heritage pages set out what it controls. |
| Conservation area | None covers Ferndown, so a like-for-like repair is ordinary maintenance. |
| Listed buildings | Yes, Ferndown has listed buildings. If yours is one, or stands in the grounds of one, work can need listed building consent. |
| Protected landscape | No National Park or National Landscape covers Ferndown. |
Questions
Questions about repointing in Ferndown
Is anything in Ferndown listed or in a conservation area?
Very little in Ferndown is listed. There is no conservation area in Ferndown, and the listed buildings are a handful, Holy Cross Abbey at Stapehill among them. On an ordinary house a repair needs no consent and no application, and the specification is entirely between you and whoever does the work. It also means the quote is the only place the mix and the joint profile get pinned down, so read that line.
Does a bungalow need a scaffold for repointing?
Often not: much of a bungalow elevation is within reach off a low tower, quicker to move and cheaper to stand than a full scaffold. Gable ends and chimney stacks are the exceptions and want a proper platform. Either way the access sits on its own line.
What mortar should a nineteen seventies wall get?
A cement, lime and sand gauge matched to what came out of the joint, not a pure lime. Those walls were built with a comparatively hard mortar and a hard fired brick, and a soft lime in them washes out inside a few winters. Lime is the right answer on a solid wall built before 1919, and there is very little of that here.
Our block is flats. Can I get the wall under my window pointed?
Not on your own instruction: the external walls belong to the block and are managed by the freeholder out of the service charge, so the person who can see the open joint is rarely the one who can order the repair. We will survey and price the whole elevation in enough detail for the managing agent.
How long before the new pointing blends in?
A season or two: fresh mortar is always paler and cleaner than the wall around it, and it darkens as it weathers. Choosing the sand for colour and texture does most of the matching, and looking at a trial panel dry rather than wet is what stops a wall ending up two shades out.
Nearby, and next door
Repointing near Ferndown
Nearby places we also cover for repointing, with straight-line distances from Ferndown, and the other trades we offer in Ferndown itself.
Repointing nearby
Our other trades in Ferndown
Repointing guides
Lime or cement mortar: which do you need? Reading a repointing quote: rake out Listed building consent for repointing and re-renderingEverything we do in Ferndown Repointing, all areas Every area we cover
Free quote
Get the mix written into the quote
A free site visit, a trial panel before the elevation follows, and an itemised written price with the mortar and the profile named.