Repointing flint and brick walls in Rockbourne

Flint walls, pointed to the flint. A good deal of the walling in Rockbourne is flint through the body with brick at the quoins and in lacing courses, and on that fabric close to half of what you see is mortar.

When the joints of a Rockbourne flint wall wash back the flints loosen from the head of the wall down, so the top courses and coping come first. We rake out by hand with a chisel and a hacksaw blade, back to sound material rather than to a set depth, and point back in a fat lime brought up around each flint, galleted where the wall was built that way.

Getting cement back off soft brick. The brick in Rockbourne is handmade and soft and was laid in lime, so the wall gives water back through the joint. Point it in sand and cement and the water leaves through the brick face instead, and after a few frosts you have hard joints standing proud of a wall losing its skin. Taking that out without knocking the arris off what is left is slow hand work. Back in goes an NHL lime or lime putty gauged against the sample, finished flush or a shade behind the face rather than weather struck.

The plinth under a cob or chalk wall. Several buildings in Rockbourne have an earth or chalk wall standing on a brick or flint plinth, which keeps the soft material above clear of splash off the ground. Once its joints go, water gets in behind and works upwards, and the damage shows in the wall above rather than the plinth. The mix has to stay open enough for the foot of the wall to dry.

Faces that have already blown. Where a brick has lost its face we cut the unit out whole and turn it, or replace it against a sample held on the wall, rather than filling the hollow: a mortar patch never matches and drops out in a couple of winters. Faces go first in the bottom few courses, in door reveals and where a downpipe has been running down the brickwork.

Stacks, and what sits under them. A stack is the most exposed masonry on any building here, weathered on four sides with nothing warming it from inside, so its joints run years ahead of the walls. Repointing above the roof line, cutting out perished brick and renewing the flaunching round the pots is usually the whole job on a stack. Where the roof beneath is thatch: no disc cutter, no angle grinder, nothing with a flame, and the coat sheeted before a boot goes near it.

One thing we will not do is point over movement. Cracking that runs through the bricks as well as the joints is a wall shifting, not mortar wearing out, and filling it hides that for a season.

The area tells you almost nothing until someone has looked at the joints, so there is no rate per square metre.

Getting to it. A cottage wall close to the street, a flint wall along the lane and a chimney standing above a roof are different set ups. A chimney or gable needs a scaffold; a boundary wall needs nothing. The work at height rules make access a line of its own.

The joints. How deep they have to be raked out, and how hard the old mortar is, sets the hours. Cement pointing on soft brick has to be cut out carefully so the edges are not damaged.

The mix. Lime is slower to work and slower to cure, and it is right for most old walls. Matching the colour may need a sample panel first.

Flint. Flint walls take more time per square metre than brick, because every joint is a different shape and depth.

Ask other quotes how deep they rake and whether by hand or disc, what mix they use and whether it was matched, how many spalled bricks are included, and whether the scaffold is in the price.

Rockbourne is 16 miles from where we are based in Boscombe. We repoint in the village, Whitsbury, Damerham, Martin and down through Breamore to Fordingbridge, with New Forest District Council as the planning authority. Bournemouth Roofing & Building Ltd is registered in England and Wales, company number 15471719. Before you book a visit in Rockbourne, you can read our customers' Google reviews, word for word, on our reviews page.

Its owner, Thomas Hannen, looks at the joints and prices every job personally. A verified customer's score on Checkatrade is 10 out of 10. The visit and the written, itemised quote cost you nothing.

Most repairs in Rockbourne 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.