Repointing in Sopley village
Hand raking and lime pointing on the old Avon valley walls, and matched cement gauge work on the village housing behind them.
The site visit is free and so is the written itemised quote. Thomas Hannen prices every job himself.
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Repointing in Sopley
Lime or cement is the whole question here
Your joints are due when they have washed out along a frontage, gone green and friable near the ground, or damp shows inside after a week of south westerly weather.
On the older village walls in Sopley the job is raking out by hand and repointing in lime, because a cement joint on soft handmade brick pushes the damp out through the brick face and the frost takes it off. Bricks that have lost their faces need cutting out and a reclaimed match.
Sopley sits low in the Avon valley and the walls get properly wet. The signs are joints washed out along a road frontage, mortar gone green and friable in the courses nearest the ground, and penetrating damp on an inside face after a week of south westerly weather, not after a shower.
A second set of walls belongs to anything later, such as an extension, a garage or a newer house in cement: a different wall wanting a different mix. Getting the two the wrong way round is the mistake that costs a wall its face.
So we look at close range, at every elevation, before quoting. The visit and the written itemised quote are free.
The work
Sopley's lime walls and later brick, and the mortar for each
Sopley's old village fabric is laid in lime. Soft handmade fired brick 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.
Later brickwork. A newer house or an extension in Sopley is usually a cavity wall 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 in Sopley, 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.
How it runs
Repointing a Sopley wall, from rake-out to finished joint
Thomas comes to look at the wall and scrapes out a little mortar to see how deep the decay goes and what it was made of. The quote lists access, raking out, the mortar mix, the area of each elevation, any spalled bricks to replace, and disposal, each on its own line.
On a soft Sopley brick the joints are raked out by hand, never widened with a disc that takes the arris off. They are brushed and damped, then filled in layers and finished to match the joint profile on the rest of the house. Scaffold goes up only where it is needed, protection goes over windows and paths, and every afternoon the dust is swept up and the old mortar bagged and taken away. If a brick crumbles once the joint is out, or a cracked lintel shows behind the pointing, we stop, take a picture and give you the cost of sorting it.
Repointing like for like needs no planning permission and no building control. On a listed building the mortar and the joint finish are part of what is protected, and there are listed entries through Sopley. The National Park Authority's interactive property map shows what applies to an address, and whether a conservation area covers you is worth checking with New Forest District Council.
Cost
Joints, mix and access: the parts of a repointing price
How far the joints have gone. Pointing that has only weathered at the face takes a shallow rake. Mortar gone soft and sandy, often low down near the ground or on the south west face that takes the rain, has to come out deeper. Depth, not area, sets the hours.
Lime or cement. The older cottages in Sopley were laid in lime, and lime is what they should get back; a hard mix makes the brick face blow off in a frost. Later extensions and any newer house were built in cement mortar and take a matched sand and cement mix. Lime takes longer and needs protecting while it cures.
Damaged brick. Each spalled brick cut out and replaced is a separate line, and on an older wall finding a match can mean a trip to a reclamation merchant.
Access. A single storey wall comes off a tower; a chimney or the gable of a two storey house needs a scaffold, often across a neighbour's frontage. Work at height rules make access a line on the quote.
Ask anyone quoting how deep they are raking and whether by hand, what mix is going back and why, how many bricks they expect to replace, and whether the scaffold is included.
If water is getting in
Damp coming through a wall with open joints
Open, washed-out joints let driven rain straight through a solid wall, and on a chimney the water finds the flashings too. If you have damp inside, note whether it is high up or at the foot of the wall, because low damp is often the ground level or a blocked gully rather than the pointing.
Phone us, and do not wait on the form. On that visit we sheet or temporarily point the worst area and look at where the water gets in; the elevation is priced once it has dried. Diary work runs Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm. Phone us about anything urgent, and if we miss you we call back.
Before you agree a mix
Listed cottages, and what consent actually covers
Sopley has an unusual number of listed entries for a village of its size, the Church of St Michael and All Angels and Sopley Mill among them, with listed cottages along the lanes. The village is also in the Sopley Conservation Area. Planning sits with the New Forest authority, not with Dorset or BCP, which catches people out on their first quote.
For mortar the line runs like this. A genuine like for like repair to a listed building, same mix, same sand, same joint profile, is repair. Changing the mortar, or changing how the joints are struck, alters the character of the building and wants listed building consent first. A conservation area is looser and deals with appearance from the street rather than with every joint. Either way the question gets answered before anything is mixed, not after.
In practice that means a sample panel on the wall, the mix and the sand written into the quote by name, and time. Consent takes weeks rather than days, so if you want a listed frontage pointed in the spring, start the enquiry over the winter. We will make it for you.
One more village detail worth planning around. The lanes in Sopley are narrow and several of the older properties sit hard on the road with nothing in front of them to stand a platform on, so the access is often the part that has to be solved first, and on a listed frontage it is worth settling alongside the consent. Left until the job is booked it adds a week. Sorted at the quote it adds nothing.
Who you are dealing with
The name behind your repointing quote
We cover Sopley, Winkton, Burton, Bransgore, Hinton and across to Christchurch and Ringwood. It is 3.7 miles from Boscombe, where we are based, and the council for Sopley is New Forest District Council. Bournemouth Roofing & Building Ltd is registered in England and Wales, with company number 15471719. Before you book a visit in Sopley, you can read our customers' Google reviews, word for word, on our reviews page.
The firm is Thomas Hannen's, and he inspects the joints and writes your price himself. A verified customer on Checkatrade gave the work 10 out of 10. The site visit is free, and so is the itemised quote you receive in writing.
Planning at a glance
Do you need planning permission in Sopley?
Most repairs in Sopley 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 Sopley |
|---|---|
| Who decides | New Forest District Council is the planning authority for Sopley. The National Park boundary runs close by, and the Park's property map shows which side an address falls. |
| Conservation area | Yes: Sopley Conservation Area and Winkton Conservation Area. They cover parts of Sopley, so check whether your street is inside one. |
| Listed buildings | Yes, there are listed buildings in and around Sopley. If yours is one, work can need listed building consent. |
| Protected landscape | No National Park or National Landscape covers Sopley. |
Questions
Questions about repointing in Sopley
Do we need consent to repoint a listed cottage?
Consent to repoint a listed cottage in Sopley depends on whether anything changes. Putting the same lime mortar back, with the same sand and the same joint profile, is repair. Changing the mix, the colour or the way the joints are struck affects the character of a listed building and wants listed building consent first. We put the specification in writing so the question can be answered on paper.
Why is lime slower to work with than cement?
Because it sets by carbonating, not by chemical reaction, so it wants weeks, not a weekend, and it wants the right weather while it does. It is worked in smaller runs, kept damp and covered, and protected from frost. That is time on the job, and it is the reason a lime frontage and a cement gable are priced very differently.
Ours was pointed in cement in the eighties. What now?
Look at the brick instead of the joint. If the faces are spalling and the joints stand proud, the cement is the cause and taking it out is the repair. It comes out by hand, joint by joint, and lime goes back. If the faces are still sound and the cement is not trapping water, there is an argument for leaving it and watching it, and we will say so.
Can you work on a frontage in the winter?
Cement gauge work, yes, within reason. Lime, not really. Green lime mortar that freezes is ruined and has to come out again, so we will not start a lime elevation into a cold spell. Late spring through to early autumn is the sensible window, which is why the enquiry and the consent are worth sorting over the winter.
How long before new mortar stops looking new?
A season or two on most walls. Fresh lime is pale and the texture is open, and it darkens and settles as it weathers and picks up the dirt of the lane. Choosing the sand for colour does most of the work up front, and a trial panel left up for a few weeks tells you far more than a sample in the hand.
Nearby, and next door
Repointing near Sopley
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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-renderingEverything we do in Christchurch Repointing, all areas Every area we cover
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Ask us which mortar your wall wants
A free site visit, a sample of the mix on the wall before we commit, and a written itemised quote you can compare properly.