Repointing in Westbourne

Raking out is done by hand. On soft Victorian brick the old joints are cut out with a plugging chisel and hammer, to about twice the joint width or back to sound mortar. No disc cutter or angle grinder is used on these walls: it widens the joint and chips the arris of the brick each side, and that damage stays visible. Joints are brushed out and damped down before the new mortar goes in, so it cures slowly.

The mix. The Westbourne villas were built in solid pre-1919 walls laid in lime, so they are repointed in natural hydraulic lime, NHL, or lime putty, with a sand chosen for colour and grain against the original. The 1960s and 70s blocks were built with cement mortar in cavity walls, and there we match the cement mix rather than put lime where it was never meant to be.

Getting cement off a period wall. Plenty of Westbourne villas had hard sand and cement pointing put in at some time. The joints look fine; the bricks round them do not, because the damp that used to leave through soft mortar now leaves through the brick face and the frost takes it off. Cutting that cement out without chipping the brick is slow, and how much of it there is moves the price more than anything.

The finish. Flush, weather struck, bucket handle or recessed, each profile catches the light differently from the pavement. We copy what the wall already has, and on any wall that faces the street a trial panel goes up first so you can judge colour and texture in daylight. Fresh mortar is always paler for the first months and settles as it weathers.

Chimneys, gables and the weather side. On a Westbourne house, stacks and the elevation facing the prevailing wind go first. Very often only one or two walls need doing now and the rest can wait years, and we would rather tell you that than repoint the whole house. A single elevation on a villa is usually about a week once the scaffold is up.

Over the shops on Poole Road and Seamoor Road. The upper floors above the shops, many inside the conservation area, are repointed from a scaffold standing on the pavement. That needs a licence from the council and a covered walkway so the shops can trade underneath, and both go on the quote as their own line. The flats above and the shop below often have different owners, so we confirm who is instructing the work before the licence is applied for.

No rate per square metre, because the square metres tell you almost nothing until somebody has looked at what the joints are actually like.

Getting to it. A villa gable facing the street, a shop frontage over the pavement on Seamoor Road and the side wall of a later block behind its car park are three different set ups to reach. A chimney or a gable wants a scaffold, a boundary wall wants nothing at all. How long the platform stands matters as much as how big it is, and the work at height rules are why it is a priced line rather than something absorbed into a rate.

The joints decide it, not the wall. Raking out by hand is slow, and on soft brick it is the only safe way, because a disc widens the joint and takes the arris off either side. How deep the joints have to come back, and whether the faces have already spalled, sets the hours far more than the 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 is slower to work and slower to cure, and it is the right answer on most pre-1919 walls in Westbourne.

Comparing quotes? Ask how deep the joints are being raked and whether by hand or by disc, what the mortar mix is and whether it has been matched to what is there, how many spalled bricks are being cut out and replaced, and whether the scaffold is in the price. A cheaper quote may leave one of those out.

We cover Westbourne and BH4, from County Gates across to the West Cliff side and down to Alum Chine, and next door into Branksome and Canford Cliffs. BCP Council is the planning authority, and our base in Boscombe is under three miles away.

You are dealing with Bournemouth Roofing & Building, the trading name of Bournemouth Roofing & Building Ltd, registered in England and Wales, company number 15471719, which you can look up in a minute. Thomas Hannen's business, and he is the one who comes out to price the job, not a salesman. A verified customer's 10 out of 10 on Checkatrade. The visit and the written quote are both free. Before you book a visit in Westbourne, you can read our customers' Google reviews, word for word, on our reviews page.

Most repairs in Westbourne 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.