Repointing in Kinson

Raking out comes first. Old joints come out to about twice their height, or until we reach sound mortar. We do it by hand with a plugging chisel wherever the brick is soft, and only use a disc cutter on hard cement joints where it will not damage the arris of the brick. A disc run carelessly widens the joint and leaves a wall looking worse than before.

The mix. Most of the houses in Kinson were built with a cement and lime mortar, and the repair mortar should be the same strength or weaker than the brick, never stronger. A hard cement mix on a softer brick drives the frost into the brick faces and they spall. We mix sand, cement and lime in a gauge that suits the wall, and we mix it the same every time, so the colour stays even.

Matching. Before we do an elevation we point a small trial panel in a hidden spot, let it dry, and check it in daylight against the old joints. The joint profile matters as much as the colour: most post-war brickwork here is a flush or bucket handle joint, and a weather struck joint in the middle of a bucket handle wall stands out.

Chimneys and gables. Chimneys lose their mortar first because they are exposed on every side. Open joints near the top let water run down into the loft, and repointing the stack, re-bedding the flaunching and checking the lead flashing is often all the chimney needs. Gables facing the prevailing weather wear next. Both usually need a scaffold, or a tower on a bungalow.

Spalled bricks. Where a brick face has broken away, we cut it out and replace it with a matched brick before pointing. For rebuilding a wall or a stack, see bricklaying in Kinson.

Pairs of semis and council homes. Most Kinson semis share a chimney stack on the party line, and the brick front of a pair was pointed in one go when it was built. Repointing one half leaves a visible line down the middle, so if next door is thinking about it too, one scaffold and one mix does both, priced separately. If you rent from BCP Council, report open joints to them. Owners of ex-council houses instruct the work themselves.

When to leave it. Joints that are weathered but still hard when you scratch them do not need raking out yet, and we will say so.

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 off a tower, the chimney on a pair of two storey semis, and a garden wall at ground level are three very different set ups. 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 Kinson.

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. Those details, more than the total, show what you are buying.

We cover Kinson and the rest of BH10 and BH11, including Bear Cross, West Howe, Ensbury Park and Northbourne. BCP Council deals with planning and listed building consent, and our Boscombe base is under four miles away.

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 Kinson, you can read our customers' Google reviews, word for word, on our reviews page.

Most repairs in Kinson 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.