Repointing across Poole and the Old Town
Raking out and repointing on Old Town solid walls, period terraces and inter-war cavity brickwork, matched to the mortar that is already there.
The site visit is free and so is the written itemised quote. Thomas Hannen prices every job himself.
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Repointing in Poole
When the mortar goes before the brick does
Repointing is a mortar job, not a wall job. Where the joints have washed out or powder under a key and the bricks either side are still sound, the wall wants raking out and filling with a mix that suits the brick: lime on the solid walls of the Old Town, a cement gauge on the inter-war and later houses. Where bricks have cracked or a wall has moved, it needs rebuilding.
In Poole the wall usually gives itself away on the south west side first. A south west elevation where the joints have gone soft and sandy enough to pull out with a screwdriver. A patch pointed in hard grey cement fifteen years ago, standing proud now while the faces around it flake. And penetrating damp on an inside wall after a wet blow, on solid wall with no cavity to slow it down.
We look at the joints on every elevation of a Poole house before quoting, because they rarely go at the same rate. A wall taking the weather off the harbour is usually years ahead of the one behind it, and repointing a whole house when one wall needs it is money spent early.
The visit and the written itemised quote are free, and we are six and a half miles from the Quay.
The work
Poole's pointing, street by street
Old Town and High Street frontages. The streets behind the Quay are solid wall, handmade fired brick, no cavity anywhere. Those walls stay dry by letting damp evaporate back out through the joint, which works only while the mortar is softer and more permeable than the brick.
In Poole's Old Town we rake by hand to roughly twice the width of the joint, never with a disc cutter, which widens the joint and takes the arris off either side. Joints are brushed out and damped down, then filled with a breathable NHL lime gauged with a sand matched for grade and colour, or a lime putty mix where the wall is old enough to want one. The profile is agreed first: flush, weather struck and bucket handle all read differently from the pavement, and a recessed joint on an exposed frontage holds water it should be shedding.
Taking a cement overcoat off a period terrace. Most Victorian and Edwardian terraces around the town centre have been pointed at least once in sand and cement. The tell is read backwards by most people: the joints look hard and sound while the faces spall, because moisture that used to leave through the mortar now leaves through the face and frost does the rest. Cutting that out is slow. Where a face has gone we cut the brick out and put a matched reclaimed stock in.
Inter-war and 1930s walls. Close to a fifth of Poole went up between the wars, cavity built in stretcher bond, in a cement gauge rather than a pure lime. Lime is right on a pre-1919 solid wall and wrong here, so we match what came out rather than apply one mix to every job. Usually it is the weather side and the top few courses, not the house.
Stacks, parapets and boundary walls. A chimney is the oldest and most weathered masonry on most Poole buildings and sits above the flashings, so an open joint there puts water into the roof rather than the wall. Parapets take it on both faces. Front boundary walls take it from the coping down and are usually the friable ones. A stack wants a scaffold, a gable often comes off a tower, a garden wall neither.
Flats and shared elevations. A third of the homes in Poole are flats, and the outside walls belong to the block rather than any one flat. We survey and price a whole elevation and give the freeholder or managing agent enough detail to work from.
How it runs
Raking out and repointing, and how the days go
Thomas looks at the joints himself, scratches a few, and checks how deep the mortar has gone. The written quote lists access, raking out, the mortar mix, the area of each elevation, any brick replacement and disposal.
On soft brick the joints are raked out by hand, so the brick edges are not cut. The new mortar is packed in firmly in layers and finished to match the joint you already have. On a terrace near the Old Town, a scaffold on the pavement needs a council licence. On a block or a converted house, the freeholder signs off first. Joints are never left raked and empty overnight, the scaffold boards are swept each afternoon, and the dust and old mortar leave with us. A brick that crumbles as its joint comes out is photographed and priced for you, not quietly swapped.
Like for like repointing is maintenance, so no planning permission and no building control. The Town Centre Heritage Conservation Area covers the old town and quay, and whether your address falls inside it, or inside another of Poole's conservation areas, is worth checking against the council list. On a listed frontage, a change to the mortar or the joint finish needs listed building consent before anything is mixed.
Cost
What a repointing job costs depends on the joints
Repointing in Poole has no fair rate per square metre. Somebody has to look at the joints first. Depth and condition. Joints that have lost a little mortar are quicker than joints washed out deep. Raking out by hand is slow, but on soft brick it is the only safe way, because a disc widens the joint and chips the arris.
The mix. Older brick near the Old Town wants lime, which cures slowly and has to be kept from frost and hot sun. An inter-war semi with hard brick can take a cement-gauged mix. Too strong a mix on soft brick holds water in the face, and the first hard frost spalls it off.
Access. A terrace on the back of the pavement, a semi in Oakdale with a side path and a top floor flat in a block off Poole Road are three different set ups. The work at height rules are why scaffold is a separate line.
Brick replacement. Spalled bricks have to be cut out and replaced with a match, and each one adds time. Matching is the part that shows.
Before you accept a quote, ask how deep the joints will be raked and whether by hand or by disc, what the mortar mix is, and whether the scaffold is included.
If water is getting in
Rain getting through open joints
Driven rain gets through washed out joints to the inside face, and on a chimney it gets round the flashings too. If you see damp spreading inside after rain, ring instead of using the form. In Poole it is usually a gable or a stack facing the weather off the harbour.
On the first visit we look, sheet the worst area or temporarily point it, and price the full elevation once it has dried enough to show what is sound. Scheduled work is Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm. If it cannot wait, a phone call is better than the form, and if we cannot answer, we get back to you as soon as we are able.
The one local thing
In Town Centre Heritage, the mortar is an appearance matter
The town centre, the Old Town and the streets behind the Quay sit in the Town Centre Heritage conservation area, and that changes a repointing job in a way most people find out afterwards. A conservation area controls how a building looks. Put the same mortar back, in the same colour and profile, and it is maintenance that nobody has to be asked about.
Change either and it is no longer like for like. A grey cement joint on a frontage that has always carried a soft buff lime, or a recessed joint in a street of weather struck ones, alters how the building reads from the pavement, and that is what the council takes an interest in.
So, for a Poole address: find out whether you are inside the boundary before you agree a specification, and get whoever is quoting to write the mix and the profile into the quote. We put both in writing, we will make the enquiry for you, and on anything visible from the street we leave a trial panel up to look at in daylight first.
On the ground, the boundary does not follow the lines you would expect, so a street can be half in and half out and your neighbours are not a reliable guide. And many older frontages sit on the back of the pavement, which means a council licence for any platform or skip, with a lead time of its own. Both are better found out at quote stage.
Who you are dealing with
Repointing across BH15, priced by the owner
Poole is 6.7 miles from our Boscombe base. We repoint in the Old Town, along the Quay, in Hamworthy, Oakdale, Parkstone and out as far as Broadstone, all under BCP Council. Thomas Hannen runs the business and prices every wall himself, on site.
Look us up as Bournemouth Roofing & Building Ltd, company number 15471719, registered in England and Wales. On Checkatrade, one verified customer has given us 10 out of 10. The visit is on us, and so is the written quote with each item listed. Before you book a visit in Poole, you can read our customers' Google reviews, word for word, on our reviews page.
Planning at a glance
Do you need planning permission in Poole?
Most repairs in Poole 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 Poole |
|---|---|
| Who decides | BCP Council is the planning authority for Poole. BCP Council's heritage pages set out what it controls. |
| Conservation area | Yes: Town Centre Heritage Conservation Area, Poole Park Conservation Area and Heckford Park Conservation Area, among others. They cover parts of Poole, so check whether your street is inside one. |
| Listed buildings | Yes, there are listed buildings in and around Poole. If yours is one, work can need listed building consent. |
| Protected landscape | No National Park or National Landscape covers Poole. |
Questions
Questions about repointing in Poole
Can we point one wall and leave the other three?
Usually yes, and on most Poole houses it is the sensible order. Elevations weather at different rates, so the wall taking the harbour weather can be years past the sheltered one. We price elevation by elevation and say which can wait. A freshly pointed wall does look newer until the mortar weathers down.
How do you tell whether our wall wants lime or cement?
By what the wall is and what came out of the joint. A pre-1919 solid wall with no cavity was built to breathe through the mortar and wants a breathable lime. A cavity wall built in a cement gauge wants that gauge matched. We probe the joint, tap for anything hollow, and read the loose material that says how deep the rake goes.
Does being in Town Centre Heritage stop us repointing?
No, it controls how the work looks, not whether you can do it. Repointing in the same mortar, colour and profile is maintenance inside the conservation area. A different colour or joint finish on a street frontage is a change of appearance, and that is where the council has a view.
Will the new pointing match, or will the house look patched?
We mix a sample against the existing mortar for colour and texture, put a trial panel on a quiet part of the wall, and look at it dry rather than wet, because wet mortar is darker. The sand does most of the matching, so it is chosen before the mix is agreed.
How long does one elevation take?
Raking out is the slow half, so it depends how deep the joints come back and whether brick faces need cutting out too. A modest cavity elevation takes days, not weeks. A period frontage with a cement overcoat to remove by hand is a good deal longer, and we say so at the quote.
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Repointing near Poole
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Repointing guides
Lime or cement mortar: which do you need? Reading a repointing quote: rake out Listed building consent for repointing and re-renderingBuilders in Poole: all our building work Everything we do in Poole Repointing, all areas Every area we cover
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Find out what your joints actually need
A free site visit, a straight answer on lime or cement, and an itemised written quote you can hold against anyone else's.