Repointing in Wimborne Minster
Hand raking, cement removal and lime pointing on the older streets, with matched cement gauge work on the post-war housing around the town.
The site visit is free and so is the written itemised quote. Thomas Hannen prices every job himself.
Repointing in Wimborne Minster
Usually it is the last repoint doing the damage
In Wimborne the mortar causing the trouble is very often the mortar somebody else put in. A cement repoint on a pre-1900 solid wall seals the joint, so the wall dries out through the brick face instead, and that is why the joints look hard while the bricks are flaking.
Close to a fifth of the town predates 1919 and the largest single slice of it is pre-1900, which is unusual for this part of Dorset. Those are solid wall buildings with no cavity, soft fired brick bedded in lime, put up on the understanding that they would get wet and dry out again through the joints.
So the calls split two ways. From the older streets: spalling brick faces, hard grey joints standing proud of them, and penetrating damp on an inside wall. From the post-war housing around the town: joints worn back on the weather side, which is a much more straightforward repair. We look at the joints and the faces together. The site visit and the itemised written quote are free.
The work
Taking cement out of an old wall, and what goes back in
Diagnosis before anything else. We probe the joint and tap the brick. Mortar that is friable and sandy has weathered and wants a straight repoint. A joint that is hard and standing proud of a spalling face is a cement repoint that has outlived the brick around it. A hollow sound behind a face means the face has already parted from the brick. Those three lead to three different quotes, and guessing between them is how people pay twice.
Removing a cement overcoat. Slow, and the part worth paying for. It comes out by hand with a hand chisel and a plugging chisel, to a depth of roughly twice the joint width. A disc cutter or an angle grinder gets through it faster, widens the joint every time it wanders and takes the arris off the brick either side, and on a period frontage that damage does not grow back.
The lime that goes back. NHL lime, or a lime putty mortar where the wall is old and soft enough to want one, gauged with a sand matched for grade, colour and texture. The joints are brushed out and damped down first so the brick does not rob the mix of its water. Lime cures slowly, so the work is covered, kept damp and protected from frost.
Brick faces and joint profile. Spalled bricks are cut out and replaced with a reclaimed or handmade match rather than filled, and on a listed frontage or one inside the conservation area we agree the replacement bricks and leave a sample panel on the wall first. The historic streets are mostly flush or slightly recessed, the Victorian and Edwardian work behind them often weather struck or bucket handle. Whatever is on the building is what goes back.
The newer stock, and the flats. Post-war cavity walls get a cement, lime and sand gauge matched to what came out, usually on the weather elevation only. A third of the homes in the town are flats, many of them conversions above the older frontages, and the outside walls of those belong to the freeholder, so we survey and price whole elevations for the managing agent to work from.
How it runs
From your call to a written price
Same team from first visit to last, one person to ring, and no sub-contracting your work out. The quote is itemised: access, raking out, the mortar mix, the area of each elevation, brick replacement and disposal on separate lines.
Nothing is left open overnight. The site is swept at the end of each day, and what comes out leaves with us. If something turns up that nobody could have seen, you get a photograph and a price before we carry on.
Repointing like for like is maintenance, so no planning permission and no building control. The historic centre sits inside the Wimborne Minster conservation area, where appearance is controlled and a change of mortar colour or joint profile on a frontage is not like for like, and a listed frontage wants listed building consent before the mix changes. We check the address before anything is ordered.
Cost
What decides the price of a repointing job
No rate per square metre: the area tells you almost nothing until somebody has looked at what the joints are actually like.
Getting to it. A shop frontage on the back of the pavement in the town centre, a Victorian terrace with a shared stack and a post-war semi with a gable you can reach off a tower are three different set ups. A chimney or a gable wants a scaffold, and how long the platform stands matters as much as how big it is. Access under the work at height rules is a priced line, not absorbed into a rate.
The joints decide it, not the wall. How deep the joints have to come back, and whether the faces have already spalled, sets the hours far more than the area does. Hand raking is slow, but a disc widens the joint and takes the arris off.
Matching is the part that shows. Too strong a mix holds water against a soft brick and the face blows off in the first hard frost. Lime is the right answer on most pre-1919 walls here.
Comparing quotes? Ask how deep the joints are raked and by hand or 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.
If water is getting in
Open joints, and water coming through the wall
Ring rather than use the form. Joints washed out let driven rain straight through to the inside face, and on a chimney it finds the flashings as well. We come and look, sheet the worst if the weather is against us, and price the elevation once it has dried enough to see what is sound. In Wimborne that is most often a west facing elevation or a stack above the flashings, and on a solid wall an open joint puts water straight onto the inside face of the room behind. The phone is answered 24 hours for emergencies; scheduled work runs Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm.
The one local thing
A fifth of the town is older than the cement on it
The stock here is unusual for this part of Dorset. Around nineteen homes in every hundred predate 1919, and the single biggest slice is pre-1900, concentrated in the streets around the Square and the Minster. Almost all of that is solid wall.
A solid wall deals with water by absorbing it and letting it evaporate back out, and the joint is the route out, because lime mortar is more permeable than the brick around it. That is a design, not a defect. Sand and cement repointing, normal practice for decades, closes the route off. The water still arrives, so it leaves through the brick face instead, and every hard frost takes a little more of the face away.
So if your house is in the older part of town and the joints look suspiciously hard and grey while the bricks look tired, the pointing is the cause rather than the victim. Taking it out and putting lime back is slow work and it is the repair that stops the damage. Much of that area sits inside the conservation area, so the mortar colour and the joint finish get settled in writing before anyone starts.
One practical note on timing. Those same frontages sit on the back of the pavement in the centre of town, so a platform there wants a licence from the council as well as the mortar agreed. Neither is difficult, and both take lead time, so the enquiry is worth putting in early.
Who you are dealing with
A local firm you can check
We cover Wimborne Minster, Colehill, Merley, Furzehill, Pamphill and out to Corfe Mullen, broadly BH21 and the roads around it, under Dorset Council. 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.
Questions
Wimborne Minster questions we get asked
Our joints are hard but the bricks are flaking. Which is the problem?
The joints, almost certainly. On a solid wall the mortar is meant to be the softer, more permeable material so the wall can dry through it. A hard cement joint reverses that, and the brick face becomes the escape route and spalls. Sound bricks and open joints is an easy repair; hard joints and failing faces is the one that needs the cement taken out.
Do we need consent to repoint in the conservation area?
Not for a genuine like for like repair. The conservation area controls appearance, so the same mortar in the same colour struck to the same profile needs nothing. A different colour or joint finish on a frontage is a change of appearance. A listed building is stricter again.
Is lime really necessary, or is it a fashion?
On a pre-1919 solid wall it is physics rather than fashion. The wall has no cavity and no membrane, and it manages moisture by letting it out through the joints. Put in a mortar harder and less permeable than the brick and the moisture leaves somewhere else. On a post-war cavity wall lime is the wrong answer.
Can you match the mortar in the old streets?
Close, yes. Old mortars here are lime with a local sand in them, so we match the sand first for grade and colour, then set the lime gauge, then look at a trial panel dry rather than wet. Weathering closes the last of the gap over a season or two.
How long does a lime pointed elevation take?
Longer than most people expect, and the raking out is the reason rather than the pointing. Taking an old cement overcoat off by hand is careful work, and lime then wants weeks to cure with the weather on its side. We set that out at the quote rather than start a frontage and rush the back half of it.
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Find out whether the pointing is the cause
A free site visit, the joints and the brick faces read together, and an itemised written quote naming the mix and the sand.