Repointing in Stone, near Wimborne and Pamphill

The bottom of the wall, where the wear concentrates. The lowest metre of a wall in Stone gets more water than anything above it: rain bouncing off a path, spray off the road, and often a drive or border built up so the ground sits close to the damp proof course.

A joint down there stays wet for weeks at a time, so it goes friable and crumbling long before head height, salts bloom white across the brick, and the fired face lifts off in the first two or three courses. We rake out, cut out the spalled faces and point back in a mix no stronger than the brick, and we say plainly when the real problem is the ground rather than the mortar. Approved Document C sets the expectations there.

Front boundary walls and copings. Almost every older property along the Blandford Road frontage has a low wall between it and the traffic, and those take weather on both faces with nothing warming either side. The coping is the weak point: once its bedding has gone, water runs straight into the top of the wall, freezes and pushes the courses apart. Repointing the coping bed and the top few courses is what stops the rest.

Older solid wall, in lime. Some of the stock in Stone predates 1919 and has no cavity behind the brick, so it keeps water out by letting it evaporate back through the joint. That only works while the mortar stays breathable and softer than the brick. Those are raked out with hand tools to roughly twice the joint width and pointed back in an NHL lime or lime putty mix gauged to the original sand, then damped, filled and brushed off. The angle grinder does not go near one.

The newer walls behind. Much of what was built in Stone from the 1980s onwards is cavity work in a cement and sand mortar with a harder fired brick, and it fails the other way round: the joint pits and opens at the arris rather than washing out, then frost lifts the face. Those want a gauged mix of similar strength going back in and the profile struck as it was, weather struck or bucket handle. Blown faces get cut out and replaced against a sample.

Shared walls and shared decisions. Where a gable or a boundary wall in Stone is shared with a neighbour, the elevation belongs to more than one household. We survey and price those face by face and photograph each one, so the cost of a single elevation can be put in front of everybody who has to agree to it.

Stacks. A chimney in Stone has weather on four sides, a cold flue up the middle and nothing heating it, so its joints go open years before anything below, and what follows is penetrating damp on a bedroom ceiling. Raking it out, repointing in a matched mix and renewing the flaunching around the pots is work at height.

How far the joints have gone. Weathered pointing needs a shallow rake. Mortar gone soft and sandy, often low down or on the side that takes the rain, has to come out deeper, and depth sets the hours more than area does.

Lime or cement. The pre-war cottages and old boundary walls were built in lime and need a lime mortar back. Too strong a mix holds water against a soft brick and the face spalls in the first hard frost. Later houses and extensions are in cement mortar and take a matched mix.

Platforms. A chimney or a gable wants a scaffold; a single storey wall comes off a tower; a boundary wall is worked from the ground. A scaffold stays up until the elevation it serves is finished. Work at height rules make access a priced line.

Spalled brick. Each damaged brick cut out and replaced is a line on the quote, and matching an old brick can take time.

Who instructs it. On a let house the landlord signs off the quote, and a shared boundary wall needs your neighbour's agreement first.

Ask anyone quoting how deep they rake and whether by hand or disc, what mix goes back, and whether the scaffold is included.

We cover Stone, Pamphill, Wimborne Minster, Colehill, Furzehill and across to Corfe Mullen and Broadstone, broadly BH21. It is about nine miles from Boscombe, where we are based, and Stone comes under Dorset Council. Bournemouth Roofing & Building Ltd is registered in England and Wales, with company number 15471719. Before you book a visit in Stone, you can read our customers' Google reviews, word for word, on our reviews page.

The firm belongs to Thomas Hannen, who inspects the joints and writes your price. A verified customer on Checkatrade gave the work 10 out of 10. The site visit is free, and so is the itemised quote in writing.

Most repairs in Stone 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.