Repointing in Mudeford
Worn mortar raked out and repointed on Mudeford houses, bungalows, chimneys and garden walls, matched to the brick and the weather.
The site visit is free and so is the written itemised quote. Thomas Hannen prices every job himself.
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Repointing in Mudeford is mostly on the facing brick of 1970s and early 1980s houses and bungalows, on garden walls and chimneys, and on older brick near the quay that wants lime. We rake out the failed joints, repoint in a mortar that suits the brick, and price it in writing after we have looked.
A Mudeford wall needs repointing when mortar is falling out of the joints in the wind, when a damp patch appears inside on the wall that faces the sea, or when a chimney or a garden wall has joints you can push a key into. Sometimes it is simply before selling, when a survey has flagged it.
We look at the joints and the brick face on every elevation, because the weather side often needs doing years before the others. For rebuilding a wall or new brickwork, see our bricklaying in Mudeford page.
The work
Raking out, mortar and the finish
Finding what has failed. We tap and scrape joints across the wall. Washed out, open joints, hollow or loose mortar and crumbling, friable pointing are marked, along with any spalling brick. Often it is one or two elevations, a chimney and the garden wall, not the whole house.
Raking out. The old mortar comes out to a depth of at least twice the joint's height, and never less than about 15 millimetres. On the harder cement mortar of the newer houses we use a disc cutter or angle grinder with care along the bed joints, and finish the perpends by hand. On soft older brick and lime mortar it is all hand raking, because a grinder chips the arris of the brick.
The mortar. Facing brick from the 1970s and 1980s in Mudeford is hard and dense, and a sand and cement mix gauged to suit it is usually right. Older, softer brick needs a lime mortar, NHL or a lime putty mix, because the mortar must always be weaker than the brick. Historic Environment Scotland on lime and cement in traditional mortars explains why cement on soft brick drives the damage into the brick face.
Putting it back. Joints are brushed clean and dampened down, then filled in layers and finished to match the house: flush, weather struck, bucket handle or recessed. We match the sand colour and texture with a small sample panel before a whole elevation is done.
Listed walls and cottages near the quay. Around Mudeford Quay some boundary walls are listed on entries of their own, among them the walls at Scotts Cottage and The Anchorage and the gate piers at Sandhills. On those, anything beyond like for like repair needs listed building consent, and a cement repoint would be exactly the wrong kind of change. They are raked out by hand and pointed in lime to match the old joint, and we tell you before starting whether consent is needed.
How long. A chimney or a garden wall is a day or two. One elevation of a house is typically a few days once the scaffold is up, and a whole house can be one to two weeks.
When to leave it. Joints that are sound but grubby do not need raking out, and a sheltered back wall on a seventies Mudeford bungalow can usually wait years. If one patch has failed, that patch is pointed and nothing more.
How it runs
From your call to a written price
One person to ring from the first visit to the last. The quote is itemised, not a figure on the back of a card: access, raking out, the mortar mix, the area of each elevation, any brick replacement and disposal on separate lines, so you can compare it properly against anyone else's.
Nothing is left open or unusable overnight. The site is swept at the end of each day rather than the end of the job, and what comes out leaves with us. If something turns up once we start that nobody could have seen, you get a photograph and a price before we carry on.
Repointing in a matching mortar and finish is maintenance and needs no planning permission. On a listed building near the quay, or where the joint finish changes the look of a building in the Mudeford Quay conservation area, check first with the council, where the council keeps the list.
Cost
What decides the price of a repointing job
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 single storey bungalow gable, a two storey Mudeford house facing the sea, and a chimney that needs a scaffold on the roof all take different access. 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 Mudeford.
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. Ask for all of it in writing, so the comparison is fair.
If water is getting in
Open joints, and water coming through the wall
Ring rather than use the form. A wall with the joints washed out lets driven rain straight through to the inside face, and on a chimney it will find the flashings as well.
We come and look, sheet or temporarily point the worst of it if the weather is against us, and price the full elevation once it has dried out enough to see what is sound. If bricks are loose on a chimney or at the top of a gable, keep people away from underneath and ring us before the next gale. Scheduled work runs Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm. For anything urgent, ring rather than use the form, and if we cannot pick up we ring you back as soon as we can.
Worth knowing
The wall facing the sea goes first
Most of Mudeford is close enough to the harbour or Christchurch Bay to catch rain driven in on the wind, and that rain carries salt. It soaks into the joints on the seaward side of the house, and as the wall dries the salt crystallises in the mortar and just under the brick face.
Over the years that breaks the pointing up from inside, so the south and south west walls wear out long before the sheltered ones. BS 8104 on exposure to wind driven rain is the method builders use to rate how exposed a wall is.
What this means for you: there is no need to repoint the whole house because one side has failed. Do the weather walls when they need it, and use a finish that sheds water, such as a weather struck or bucket handle joint, not a recessed one that lets water sit on the brick. If the brick itself is soft, a lime mortar that lets salt and moisture out through the joint protects the brick. We show you each elevation in photographs and price them separately.
Who you are dealing with
A local firm you can check
We repoint across Mudeford and BH23, from the quay and Avon Beach to Friars Cliff, Highcliffe, Stanpit and Christchurch. BCP Council is the planning authority, and our base in Boscombe is about 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 Mudeford, you can read our customers' Google reviews, word for word, on our reviews page.
Planning at a glance
Do you need planning permission in Mudeford?
Most repairs in Mudeford 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 Mudeford |
|---|---|
| Who decides | BCP Council is the planning authority for Mudeford. BCP Council's heritage pages set out what it controls. |
| Conservation area | Yes: Mudeford Quay Conservation Area. Check whether your street is inside the boundary before changing anything visible. |
| Listed buildings | Yes, there are listed buildings in and around Mudeford. If yours is one, work can need listed building consent. |
| Protected landscape | No National Park or National Landscape covers Mudeford. |
Questions
Questions about repointing in Mudeford
Does the whole house need repointing?
A Mudeford house rarely needs repointing all over. The walls that face the sea and the prevailing wind usually fail first. We look at each elevation and price them separately, so you only pay for what needs doing.
Should my house be repointed in lime or cement?
Hard facing brick from the 1970s and 1980s is usually fine with a sand and cement mix. Older, softer brick needs lime. The mortar should always be weaker than the brick.
How long does repointing take?
A chimney or garden wall is a day or two, one elevation a few days, and a whole house one to two weeks.
Can you repoint in winter?
Yes, between frosts. Fresh mortar must not freeze while it cures, so nothing is pointed when frost is forecast, and on a wall facing the sea the new work is covered against wind driven rain as well.
Nearby, and next door
Repointing near Mudeford
Nearby places we also cover for repointing, with straight-line distances from Mudeford, and the other trades we offer in Mudeford itself.
Repointing nearby
Our other trades in Mudeford
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 Mudeford Repointing, all areas Every area we cover
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Get your Mudeford brickwork repointed
Thomas comes out, checks the joints on every side, and gives you a written itemised price. The visit and quote are both free.