Repointing in Highcliffe, houses and blocks alike
Nearly four homes in ten here are flats, so a lot of the mortar work is communal and has to be agreed before it can be booked.
The site visit is free and so is the written itemised quote. Thomas Hannen prices every job himself.
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Your joints are due when they have washed back behind the brick, crumble under a key, or let damp into one flat after a blow off the sea. On a Highcliffe block the mortar decision is made once for everyone: one matched mix, one joint profile, one trial panel, then the elevations raked out in the order the weather has worn them, priced so a freeholder can put it to leaseholders. Cracked or spalled bricks are cut out and replaced as a separate line.
Highcliffe has blocks of flats facing the sea as well as houses and bungalows, and they wear differently. On a block it is the parapets and the flank wall, or damp coming through a bedroom wall on a corner that faces the sea. On the houses and bungalows it is smaller: grit dropping out of a joint onto a path, a stack shedding sand into the gutter, brick faces flaking below a sill.
None of it needs a wall taken down. It is mortar, and on a building of any size the useful question is which elevation goes first. We look at every face, test joints with a key, tap the courses for the hollow note that says the pointing has parted from the brick, and photograph the lot.
Back comes a written itemised quote broken down elevation by elevation, with the access on its own line, so a whole block can be phased over several years. The survey and the quote cost nothing.
The work
Parapets, flank walls and the corner facing the sea
Communal elevations on a block. Close to four homes in ten in Highcliffe are flats, a lot of them in low rise blocks built from the late 1950s onwards. The mortar work on those is parapets, the brick panels between windows, the returns at the corners and the long flank walls that take the weather.
Where leaseholders are paying, major works are usually subject to consultation under section 20 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985, so it is worth finding out where that has got to before anyone books access.
The seaward face, and why it is always ahead. The beach is a couple of hundred metres from these Highcliffe streets, and on a blowing day the weather arrives as spray carried inland rather than clean rain. Salt sits in the outer few millimetres of a joint, holds damp in the wall between showers and then crystallises as it dries, breaking the joint apart from inside. The south and west faces here can be a decade ahead of the sheltered ones, and the order of work follows the exposure.
Late fifties and early sixties cavity brickwork. Around two thirds of Highcliffe was built between 1945 and 1982, with the peak in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Mortar from that period was often gauged with lime as well as cement, so it fails gently: the joint erodes back at the arris, water stands in it, and frost lifts the fired face off the brick in flakes. Joints come out to about twice their width, the perpends by hand, damped down before filling and brushed off. The profile goes back as weather struck or bucket handle.
Matching across a large elevation. On a Highcliffe block you need enough matched mortar for hundreds of square metres, and if the sand changes part way through, the colour steps and you can see the join from the road for thirty years. We take a sample of sound original mortar from a sheltered spot, work out the sand and the gauge, put a trial panel up to be looked at in daylight, then hold the sand from one source for the whole building.
Spalled faces, stacks and the older properties. Where a brick face has blown we cut the brick out and turn or replace it against a sample, because packing the hollow with mortar leaves a patch that never matches. Chimney stacks go friable and open years before the walls beneath, and the penetrating damp that follows shows on a top floor ceiling. A small share of Highcliffe predates 1919 and is solid wall with no cavity, which has to stay breathable and gets an NHL lime or lime putty mix matched to the original sand.
How it runs
Raking out and repointing, one elevation at a time
Thomas prices the job after looking at every elevation, because on the Highcliffe coast one wall is often far worse than the rest. The written quote breaks it down: the tower or scaffold, raking out, the mix of the new mortar, each elevation measured separately, any bricks to replace, and disposal of the old mortar. Raking and pointing run elevation by elevation.
Joints are raked back by hand to a consistent depth, brushed out and dampened before the new mortar goes in. A trial panel matches the colour and texture first. In a drying wind off the sea, fresh pointing is covered with hessian so it cures rather than crumbles. A bungalow is worked from a tower. A block or a chimney needs a scaffold, and on flats the freeholder instructs the work.
Dust sheets go down under each wall, the ground is swept daily, and the raked-out mortar leaves with us. Spalled bricks found once the joints are open get a photograph and a price before they are cut out.
Like for like repointing is repair, not development, so there is no planning application. BCP Council's list of conservation areas includes Verno Lane and Bramble Lane, both in this parish. On a listed building such as Highcliffe Castle, the mortar is protected fabric and a change of mix or joint profile needs listed building consent first.
Cost
Joint depth, mortar match and the wall that faces the sea
We price the wall you have, not an area. Two elevations of the same size on the same house can be very different jobs, and a bungalow off a tower is not a gable off a scaffold.
Which walls need it. The south west face takes the driven rain and the salt. It is common for that elevation to need repointing while the sheltered sides are fine, and pointing only what needs it is a fair saving.
How far back the joints go. Shallow weathering is a quick rake. Joints that have washed out deep, or faces that have spalled, take far longer, and replaced bricks have to be matched. A disc cutter is quicker than hand raking but widens the joints and rounds the arris, and it shows.
The mix. Post-war walls were usually built in a cement and lime mortar, and the repointing should be no stronger than the brick. The few older houses in Highcliffe nearer the castle may have been laid in lime, where a cement pointing traps water and the brick face blows in a frost. Lime mortar takes longer to lay and to cure.
Getting up there. A chimney or a three storey block with parapets needs a scaffold for the length of the job, and that is a separate line because of the work at height rules.
Ask how deep the joints will be raked and with what, what the mix is and whether it has been matched, and whether the scaffold is included.
If water is getting in
Rain getting through open joints on an exposed wall
Damp on the inside face of an outside wall after heavy rain means water is coming through the joints. Joints washed out let driven rain straight through, and on a chimney it can reach the flashings as well. Note which wall and which corner.
In a Highcliffe block, tell us which flat and which elevation, because the water usually comes through one exposed face rather than the whole building. On the first visit we look, sheet the worst if more weather is due, and price the repointing once the wall is dry enough to tell sound mortar from failed. With water getting in, ring instead of using the form; if we miss you we call back. Scheduled work runs Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm.
Worth knowing
One block, one mix, and one decision that lasts
Getting to it is the first cost. A three storey block with parapets, a bungalow whose walls a tower will reach, and a low wall along the front of a plot are three different platforms. A chimney or a gable wants a scaffold, and how long the platform stands matters as much as how big it is. Access under the work at height rules is a priced line, not absorbed into a rate.
The joints decide it, not the wall. 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 holds water against a soft brick and the face blows off in the first hard frost. Lime is the right answer on most pre-1919 walls in Highcliffe.
Who you are dealing with
Thomas Hannen, and the company behind him
Walls along Lymington Road and the side streets off it, out to Walkford, down to Friars Cliff and along to New Milton and Christchurch, are ours to repoint, under BCP Council. It is 5.7 miles from our base in Boscombe.
Thomas Hannen inspects the joints, decides the mix and writes the price in person, because it is his company. A verified Checkatrade customer gave the work a 10 out of 10. Coming out to see the wall is free, and so is the written breakdown of the price. For the record, that company is Bournemouth Roofing & Building Ltd, registered in England and Wales, company number 15471719. Before you book a visit in Highcliffe, you can read our customers' Google reviews, word for word, on our reviews page.
Planning at a glance
Do you need planning permission in Highcliffe?
Most repairs in Highcliffe 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 Highcliffe |
|---|---|
| Who decides | BCP Council is the planning authority for Highcliffe. BCP Council's heritage pages set out what it controls. |
| Conservation area | Yes: Bramble Lane Conservation Area and Verno Lane Conservation Area. They cover parts of Highcliffe, so check whether your street is inside one. |
| Listed buildings | Yes, there are listed buildings in and around Highcliffe. If yours is one, work can need listed building consent. |
| Protected landscape | No National Park or National Landscape covers Highcliffe. |
Questions
Questions about repointing in Highcliffe
Who decides on the mortar when the building is flats?
The freeholder or the management company, normally on the advice of whoever is specifying the work. Leaseholders get consulted on the cost, not on the sand. What we can do is make the choice visible: a trial panel on a discreet elevation, left up long enough for people to see it in different light.
Can a block be repointed one elevation at a time?
Yes, and on a larger building it is usually the sensible way. The exposed faces genuinely are years ahead of the sheltered ones, so doing everything at once means paying to repoint walls that did not need it. The one thing to hold constant is the mix, so we keep the sand from a single source.
Why is the wall facing the sea so much worse than the back of the building?
Salt: it arrives as spray on a windy day, gets into the outer few millimetres of the joint and then crystallises as it dries, and that crystal growth breaks the material apart from within. It is also why a hard, dense mix is exactly the wrong answer on the seaward side.
Do you take on work for managing agents and residents' associations?
Yes, on the same basis as for a single owner: a survey of every elevation, photographs, and a written itemised quote broken down so each face can be approved separately. Where leaseholders are paying, the consultation runs on its own timetable, so we price the work early rather than promise a start date it cannot meet.
Our block is not listed. Is there anything to check before we start?
Not much, for a genuine like for like repair. Repointing in the same material, colour and profile is maintenance and needs no application. It is worth checking the address against the council's conservation area map anyway, and confirming whether any part of the structure carries its own listing, because boundary walls and gate piers sometimes do.
Nearby, and next door
Repointing near Highcliffe
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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 Highcliffe Repointing, all areas Every area we cover
Free quote
Get every elevation surveyed and priced separately
Thomas comes out, tests the joints on each face, photographs what he finds and puts the price in writing, broken down elevation by elevation, at no cost to you.