Repointing in Oakdale

Raking out is done by hand. Old joints come out with a plugging chisel to a depth of about twice the joint height, or back to sound mortar. We do not run an angle grinder or disc cutter along the joints of soft brick, because it widens them and chips the arris either side, and that shows for good. The joints are brushed out and damped down before the new mortar goes in.

The mix. Oakdale houses from the 1920s and 1930s were often laid in a softer mortar than a modern sand and cement mix, sometimes lime gauged with a little cement. Where that is what the wall is built in, we use a similar mix, or a natural hydraulic lime, NHL, so the joints stay weaker than the brick. On the later post-war houses built in cement mortar, we match that instead.

Cutting out old cement repairs. A lot of Oakdale houses had patches pointed in hard grey cement at some point. Next to it you often see the brick faces starting to spall, because the wall is losing its moisture through the brick instead of the joint. Cutting that out carefully is slow and it is a large part of the price.

The finish. A flush, weather struck, bucket handle or recessed joint each looks different from the pavement. We copy what the house has. On a front elevation a trial panel goes up first to show the sand colour and texture, and the new mortar will look lighter for a few months before it weathers in.

Brick and render together. Many 1930s semis in Oakdale are brick on the ground floor with pebbledash or render above, or brick with a rendered bay. We only repoint the brick, and take care at the line where the two meet, which is often where water gets in.

A chimney shared with next door. On an Oakdale pair of semis the stack usually sits on the party wall, with flues from both houses inside it. Repointing it means scaffolding a stack that is half your neighbour's, so it is worth talking to them first: one scaffold across the pair can do the whole stack, each owner quoted separately. Work to a shared stack can also need a party wall notice, which we point out on the quote.

Chimneys and boundary walls. Chimneys weather fastest, and a garden wall has rain on both faces and its top. Often one of those is the only job that is really needed this year, and we will tell you 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 single bay front on a 1930s semi, the chimney on a hipped bungalow, and the full gable of a two storey detached house all need different access and time. 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 Oakdale.

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. Differences in those answers usually explain differences in price.

We repoint across Oakdale and the rest of BH15, from Fleetsbridge down Wimborne Road towards Poole, and over to Creekmoor, Canford Heath and Parkstone. BCP Council is the planning authority, and our base in Boscombe is about six 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 Oakdale, you can read our customers' Google reviews, word for word, on our reviews page.

Most repairs in Oakdale 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.