Repointing in Parkstone

Victorian and Edwardian solid walls. Much of Parkstone's older housing, from the villas in Lower Parkstone to the artisan terraces up the hill, is solid brick laid in lime. We rake the joints out by hand with a plugging chisel, never with a disc cutter or angle grinder, to a depth of about twice the joint width.

A disc widens the joint and takes the arris off the brick either side, and on a soft fired brick that damage is permanent. The joint is brushed out, damped down, then filled with a breathable NHL lime mortar gauged with a sand chosen to match the colour and texture of the old joint.

Taking a cement repair off. Plenty of the older Parkstone houses have been repointed in hard sand and cement at some point. The cement looks sound while the brick around it spalls, because the moisture now leaves through the brick face and frost breaks it off. Cutting that cement out without damaging the brick is slow, careful work and it is priced as such. Where a face has already gone, we cut the brick out and put in a matched one.

Inter-war and post-war cavity walls. The Parkstone semis built between the wars and after were mostly laid in a cement gauged mortar. Here we match what came out rather than forcing lime into a wall that was never built with it. Usually it is the most exposed wall and the top courses that need doing, not the whole house.

Chimneys and front walls. A stack is the most weathered brickwork on the house, and open joints there put water straight into the roof. Low front garden walls lose their pointing from the coping down and are often loose and friable.

Matching the finish. Flush, weather struck, bucket handle and recessed joints all look different from the pavement. We agree the profile and put up a trial panel so you can see the colour once it has dried, because wet mortar always reads darker.

If the bricks themselves have gone, or the wall has moved, that is a rebuilding job, covered under bricklaying in Parkstone.

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 gable end on a Lower Parkstone villa, a terraced frontage on the pavement near Ashley Road and a converted house with three flats sharing one wall are three different pieces of 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 Parkstone.

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. The answers matter more than the bottom line.

We cover the whole of Parkstone, from Ashley Road and Heatherlands on the higher ground down to Ashley Cross and Penn Hill, across BH12 and BH14, under BCP Council.

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

Most repairs in Parkstone 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.