Repointing around Matchams
Hand raking and repointing on the exposed heath fringe, where one elevation takes the weather and the other three rarely need touching.
The site visit is free and so is the written itemised quote. Thomas Hannen prices every job himself.
Repointing at Matchams
Out on the heath, the wind picks the wall
Repointing at Matchams is nearly always one elevation, the south west one, and the joint profile you put back matters here as much as the mix you put in. A wall that takes driven rain wants a joint that sheds water, not one that gives it somewhere to sit.
Properties out here stand in the open, with heath and forest around them and almost nothing to break a south westerly. What that does to brickwork is particular. Rain arrives sideways and lands on the wall rather than falling past it, so the joints on that one face wear back while the sheltered elevations stay sound for another twenty years.
The calls are consistent. Joints washed out and friable on the weather face. A chimney losing mortar out of the top courses. An outbuilding or a boundary wall gone soft along the top of the joint. Penetrating damp appearing on an inside face after a long wet blow rather than after a shower.
We look at all four elevations, because the honest answer is usually that one needs doing and the others do not. The visit and the itemised written quote are free.
The work
What driven rain does to a joint, and how we put it back
Reading the wall first. We tap and we probe. Mortar crumbling under a thumb, a joint friable and sandy ten or fifteen millimetres in, a section that sounds hollow behind the face, and the loose material that comes away on its own all say different things about how far it has gone. That sets the depth of the rake, and the rake sets the hours.
Raking out. By hand, back to roughly twice the joint width and no further, so the new mortar keys in without disturbing what is sound behind it. A disc cutter is quicker, widens the joint and takes the arris off either side, which on an exposed wall gives the weather more edge to work at. Joints are brushed out and damped down before pointing.
The mix, matched to the brick. A soft handmade or period brick in a solid wall wants a breathable NHL lime or lime putty gauge, because that wall dries out through its joints. A modern cavity wall wants a cement, lime and sand gauge of the same strength as what came out. Too strong a mix against a soft brick and the fired face spalls at the first hard frost, which is worse than the open joint you started with.
The joint profile, which matters more here than anywhere. On a sheltered wall the profile is mostly appearance. On a wall taking driven rain it is drainage. A weather struck joint is cut back at the top and left proud at the bottom so water runs off. A bucket handle joint is compressed hard and copes well. A recessed joint leaves a ledge at every course for water to stand on. On the south west elevation we point weather struck or bucket handle unless there is a reason not to.
Faces, stacks and outbuildings. Frost damage on an exposed face means cutting the brick out and putting a match in, not filling the crater with mortar. A chimney is the most exposed masonry on any building out here and sits above the flashings, so an open joint there goes into the roof. Stables, garages, workshops and long runs of boundary wall are pointing jobs in their own right. A stack wants a scaffold, a single storey elevation often comes off a tower, a wall by the lane neither.
How it runs
From your call to a written price
Same team from first visit to last, one person to ring, and no sub-contracting. The quote is itemised: access, raking out, the mortar mix, the area of each elevation, brick replacement and disposal on separate lines.
Nothing is left open overnight, the site is swept daily, and what comes out leaves with us. If something turns up that nobody could have seen, you get a photograph and a price before we carry on.
Repointing like for like is maintenance, so there is no planning permission to get and no building control involved. There is no conservation area over Matchams and no listed entries in it, which is unusual on this patch. We still check Dorset Council's listed building records as part of the survey rather than assume it, because on an older property the answer changes the mix.
Cost
What decides the price of a repointing job
No rate per square metre. The area tells you almost nothing until somebody has looked at the joints.
Getting to it. A bungalow standing on its own with the wind straight onto the gable, a two storey house with a stack on it and a long run of boundary wall by the lane are three different set ups before a joint is touched. The work at height rules are why access is its own priced line.
The joints decide it, not the wall. Raking out by hand is slow, and on soft brick the only safe way: a disc widens the joint and takes the arris off. Depth, and whether faces have already spalled, sets the hours far more than 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 cures slower, and suits most pre-1919 walls here.
Comparing quotes? Ask how deep the joints are raked and by what, what the mix is, how many spalled bricks come out, and whether the scaffold is in the price. Two quotes for the same job are usually two different jobs.
If water is getting in
Open joints, and water coming through the wall
Ring rather than use the form. Washed out joints let driven rain straight through to the inside face, and on a chimney it finds the flashings too. We come and look, sheet or temporarily point the worst, then price the elevation once it has dried enough to show what is sound. At Matchams it shows after a long spell of wind and rain rather than after a shower, as a damp patch on the inside of the south west wall that dries and comes back with the next blow. The phone is answered 24 hours for emergencies; scheduled work runs Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm.
The one local thing
Exposure, and why the joint finish is a technical choice
The most exposed wall on almost everything around Matchams faces south west, and there is very little standing between it and the weather. BS 8104 is the code of practice for working out how much wind driven rain a wall actually takes, and the reason it exists is that two identical walls a mile apart can sit in different exposure categories.
What that changes for you is simple. On a sheltered elevation, choose the profile that suits the building. On the exposed one, choose the profile that sheds water: weather struck, or a bucket handle compressed hard into the joint. Avoid a recessed finish there however smart it looks on a sample board, because every course becomes a small shelf.
Expect, too, to repoint the weather side while the other three still carry their original mortar. Out here that is normal rather than a sign of a bad wall, and doing one elevation properly costs a great deal less than treating a whole house.
Exposure out here is a local matter rather than a postcode one. A house tucked behind a belt of forestry sits in a different position from one on the open heath two fields away, and the joints tell you which you have long before any map does. So we read the wall on the visit and set the profile from that.
Who you are dealing with
A local firm you can check
We cover Matchams, Hurn, St Leonards and St Ives, Ashley Heath, Ringwood and out towards Verwood, broadly BH24 and the roads around it, under Dorset Council. You are dealing with Bournemouth Roofing & Building, the trading name of Bournemouth Roofing & Building Ltd, registered in England and Wales, company number 15471719. Thomas Hannen prices every job himself. A verified customer's 10 out of 10 on Checkatrade. The visit and the written itemised quote are free.
Questions
Matchams questions we get asked
Only one wall has gone. Should we do the whole house?
There is rarely a reason to. Exposure here is so one sided that the south west face can be badly open while the sheltered elevations are still on original mortar and perfectly sound. We survey all of them, price them separately and tell you which are years away. Doing sound joints early buys you nothing.
Which joint profile is right for an exposed wall?
Weather struck or a hard compressed bucket handle. Both shed water off the face of the joint rather than holding it. A recessed finish leaves a ledge at every course, and on a wall that takes driven rain that is where the frost gets a start. On sheltered elevations you can please yourself.
Can you point out here in the winter?
Cement gauge work, within reason and with an eye on the forecast. Lime, no. Green lime mortar that catches a frost is ruined and has to be raked out and done again, so we would rather book a lime elevation for the spring than gamble a week's work on a mild snap.
How long will the repointing last on the weather side?
We will not put a number on it, because it depends on the mix, the profile and how hard that wall gets hit. What we can say is that the two things that shorten it are a mortar stronger than the brick and a joint finish that holds water, and both are avoidable at the quote stage rather than afterwards.
Is there anything listed at Matchams we need to check?
There are no listed entries recorded here and no conservation area over the area, so a repair needs no listed building consent and no application. We check the records rather than assume, because a property just up the road can sit under a different answer, and that is worth knowing before a specification is agreed.
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Price the elevation that has actually gone
A free site visit, all four walls looked at properly, and an itemised written quote naming the mix and the joint profile.