Lime repointing in Walhampton and Portmore

Solid walls, raked and pointed in lime. A pre-1919 wall here is one thickness of brick, or brick with rubble stone, and there is no cavity behind it. It handles rain by letting it evaporate back out through the joint, which works while the mortar stays softer and more open than the masonry. Those joints come out by hand, raked back to about twice their width, and the angle grinder stays in the van, because a disc cutter takes the arris off. They are damped down and brushed out before filling, then go back in an NHL lime or lime putty gauged against a sample of the original, so the wall stays breathable. BS EN 459 is the standard the binder is bought to, so the quote names the lime. Victorian and Edwardian additions get the same treatment.

Hard cement, taken back off. The commonest thing wrong with an old wall around here is a repoint done in dense cement. the case against hard cement on soft masonry reads plainly: the joints stand slightly proud and look almost new while the masonry between them crumbles. Cutting hard mortar from a soft joint is patient hand work. Where the arris went with it, we price the replacement alongside.

Spalled faces, cut out rather than filled. Filling a blown hollow leaves a dark patch that never matches and drops out in a couple of winters. The brick comes out whole and is turned where the back is sound, or replaced against a sample held on the wall. Frost damage gathers low down, under sills and beside downpipes, and just above the damp proof course where a path has been built up.

Stacks, parapets and the joints out of sight. A chimney takes weather on four sides with nothing warming it from within, so its mortar washes out long before anything at eye level does. Anything above the eaves wants a scaffold rather than a tower, and on a shared stack the Party Wall etc. Act 1996 sets a notice period before cutting starts.

The finish, and matching it. The profile goes back as the building carries it: a fine flush or slightly recessed joint on the older elevations, weather struck or bucket handle on the hard fired brick of anything postwar. We make up a trial panel on a discreet part of the wall for you to look at in daylight.

Flats in a converted house. Around a third of the dwellings in this parish are flats, many in large older buildings split up, so the elevation belongs to the freeholder rather than to any one flat. Find out who instructs the work before anybody books access.

The one job we turn down is pointing over movement, or pointing a wall that is wet because water is arriving from somewhere else. A gutter running over strips mortar faster than any weather.

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

Getting to it. A cottage gable in the lanes, a large converted house with a shared stack, and an estate wall are three different set ups before a joint is raked. A chimney or a gable wants a scaffold; a boundary wall wants nothing. The work at height rules are why access is a priced line rather than a rate.

The joints decide it, not the wall. How deep they come back, and whether the faces have spalled, sets the hours far more than the area does.

Matching is the part that shows. Lime is slower to work and slower to cure, and right on most pre-1919 walls here.

Comparing quotes? Ask how deep the joints are raked and by hand or by disc, what the mix is and whether it was matched, how many spalled bricks are being replaced, and whether the scaffold is in the price.

We cover Walhampton, Portmore, Boldre, Pilley, Lymington and the lanes down towards the river, broadly SO41, with the New Forest National Park Authority as the planning authority across this parish. You are dealing with Bournemouth Roofing & Building, trading name of Bournemouth Roofing & Building Ltd, company number 15471719. Thomas Hannen's business, and he prices every job himself rather than sending a salesman. A verified customer's 10 out of 10 on Checkatrade. The visit and the written quote are free.