Repointing in Hamworthy

Whole elevations. On a sixties or seventies house the failed mortar is raked back to an even depth, around twice the joint height, so the new pointing has enough to key into.

We rake by hand or with a small disc cutter held to the joint, never an angle grinder swung across the bricks, which chips the arris and leaves the wall looking worse than before. The joints are brushed out, damped down, and filled in two passes if they are deep. A front elevation on a semi is usually a few days on a scaffold.

The finish of the joint. Most houses in Hamworthy were pointed flush or with a bucket handle joint, and some with a weather struck or recessed joint. We match what is there, because the joint profile changes how the whole wall reads and how well it sheds water.

Chimneys. A Hamworthy stack stands clear of the roof and takes weather on every face, so its pointing goes first. Open joints on a chimney let water down inside the brickwork and into the loft. It is repointed off a scaffold, and it makes sense to check the flaunching and the lead flashing at the same time.

Mortar mix. Post-war cavity brick in Hamworthy is a hard, well fired brick, and it takes a cement, lime and sand mix gauged so the mortar stays a little weaker than the brick. The handful of older, solid-walled buildings nearer the bridges and along Blandford Road, and The Old Rectory, are different: soft brick and lime, which must stay breathable, so they are pointed in a natural hydraulic lime (NHL) or lime putty mortar. Cement on a soft brick traps moisture, and frost then spalls the face off the brick instead of the joint.

Matching colour. We mix a trial with sand close to the original, let it dry, and show you a small sample panel before a whole wall is done. New pointing always looks fresh for a while until it weathers in.

The older houses towards Poole Bridge. The few pre-war and Victorian houses in Hamworthy along Blandford Road were built in softer brick and lime mortar, and two sets of houses there are listed. Those walls are raked out by hand and repointed in lime, never cement, and on a listed house a change of mortar or joint needs listed building consent. Salt carried in off the water on three sides crystallises in the joints as they dry, so the joint is finished to shed water rather than hold it.

When not to repoint. Horizontal cracks every few courses point to wall ties, and loose or friable bricks need replacing first. Those jobs are on our bricklaying page for Hamworthy.

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 bungalow gable reached off a tower, a chimney on a two storey semi, and the front of a terrace where the scaffold stands on the pavement do not share one access plan. 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 Hamworthy.

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. A figure without those details is only half a quote.

Hamworthy is BH15, across the harbour from Poole Quay and about 7.7 miles from our base in Boscombe. We cover the whole peninsula, from Lower Hamworthy and Carter's Quay by the bridges, through Central Hamworthy and Lake, out to Rockley and Cobbs Quay, and Turlin Moor on the Upton side.

BCP Council is the planning and building control authority. 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 Hamworthy, you can read our customers' Google reviews, word for word, on our reviews page.

Most repairs in Hamworthy 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.