Repointing in Sopley village

The old village fabric. Soft handmade fired brick laid in lime with a wide, irregular joint, solid wall throughout, breathable by design. Raked by hand only, to about twice the joint width. A disc cutter on a joint that wanders like this takes the arris off every second brick and leaves tramlines nobody can undo. Joints are brushed out and damped down, then filled with an NHL lime, or a lime putty mortar where the wall is old and soft enough to want one, gauged with a well graded sand. Lime cures slowly, so the work is covered, kept damp and protected, and a frost on green mortar undoes the day.

The joint profile on a village frontage. What is usually there is flush, or slightly recessed with the brick edge showing; weather struck and bucket handle joints are later work. On a road frontage we keep the profile the building carries, and leave a sample panel up for you and, where it matters, for the planning officer.

Brick faces that have already gone. Where a previous cement repoint has done its work, the faces spall and the arris crumbles away. Those bricks are cut out and replaced with a reclaimed match rather than filled with mortar, which is the shortcut that shows within a season.

The post-war housing. Terraces are close to half the homes here and most of the village was built between the war and the early 1980s, cavity walls in a cement gauge. Those want matching rather than converting: a cement, lime and sand gauge of the same strength as what came out, usually on the exposed elevation only. Pointing one of them in lime is a job you pay for twice.

Chimneys, boundary walls and outbuildings. Stacks sit above the flashings and are the most weathered masonry on any building here, so an open joint puts water into the roof. Garden and churchyard walls take it from the top and both faces. Older properties come with brick outbuildings that nobody looks at until the mortar is loose. A stack wants a scaffold, a single storey cottage often comes off a tower, and access is priced on its own line.

No rate per square metre. The area tells you almost nothing until somebody has looked at the joints.

Getting to it. A cottage on the lane with no hard standing in front of it, a terrace with a shared boundary and a farm outbuilding you can drive right up to are three different set ups before a joint is touched. The work at height rules are why access is its own priced line.

The joints decide it, not the wall. Raking out by hand is slow, and on soft brick the only safe way: a disc widens the joint and takes the arris off. Depth, and whether faces have already spalled, sets the hours far more than 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 cures slower, and suits most pre-1919 walls here.

Comparing quotes? Ask how deep the joints are raked and by what, what the mix is, how many spalled bricks come out, and whether the scaffold is in the price. Two quotes for the same job are usually two different jobs.

We cover Sopley, Winkton, Burton, Bransgore, Hinton and across to Christchurch and Ringwood, broadly BH23 and the lanes around it, under the New Forest planning authority. You are dealing with Bournemouth Roofing & Building, the trading name of Bournemouth Roofing & Building Ltd, registered in England and Wales, company number 15471719. Thomas Hannen prices every job himself. A verified customer's 10 out of 10 on Checkatrade. The visit and the written itemised quote are free.