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.
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Repointing in Wimborne Minster
Usually it is the last repoint doing the damage
Your joints are due when they have weathered back or crumble under a key, but in Wimborne Minster the mortar causing trouble is often the mortar somebody else put in: a cement repoint on a pre-1900 solid wall seals the joint, so the wall dries through the brick face instead. The job is cutting that out by hand and repointing in a matched lime. Flaking bricks that have lost their faces are cut out and replaced with a reclaimed match.
Close to a fifth of Wimborne Minster 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 faults differ by age. 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 Wimborne Minster: 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. On a Wimborne Minster wall 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 Wimborne Minster 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. On a Wimborne Minster frontage, 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 Wimborne Minster 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
Repointing soft brick and lime joints in Wimborne
Thomas comes out to Wimborne Minster and looks at the joints before anything else: how deep they have gone, whether the old mortar is lime or cement, and whether the brick faces have spalled. The quote lists access, raking out, the mortar mix, the area of each elevation, brick replacement and disposal separately. The whole job sits with one company until the last joint is struck.
Joints are raked out by hand to a proper depth, not ground out with a disc that widens them and chips the brick edges. The new mortar is matched to the old for colour and strength, and on most of the older walls in Wimborne Minster that means lime. It is kept damp and covered while it cures. On a street front the scaffold stands on the footway under a council licence, and the pavement is swept at the end of each day. A brick that crumbles once its joint is open is shown to you, photo and cost, before it is cut out.
Repointing like for like needs no planning permission and no building control. A new mortar colour or joint profile on a front is a change of appearance, so ask Dorset Council if you are inside the Wimborne Minster Conservation Area, which covers the town centre. A listed front needs listed building consent before the mix changes.
Cost
What moves the price of repointing an old front
We never price by the square metre, because the area means little until someone has looked at the joints. How you reach the wall. A Wimborne Minster shop front on the pavement edge, a terrace with a shared stack, and a gable on a post-war semi that a tower reaches from the garden are three set ups. A chimney wants a scaffold. Under the work at height rules it is priced as a separate item.
Depth and hardness of the old joints. Soft lime that has washed out comes back quickly. Hard cement pointing on top of soft brick is slow, because it has to be cut out without taking the arris with it.
The mix. Lime mortar takes more time and care. It is worth it on soft Wimborne Minster brick, because a cement mix holds water in the brick and the face blows off in a frost. We match what the wall was built with.
Spalled bricks. Each one cut out and replaced is counted in the quote, and reclaimed bricks to match an old front take finding.
Flats above shops. The walls are usually the freeholder's to repair, so the managing agent may need to instruct us.
Ask any other quote whether the joints are raked by hand or by disc, whether the mix is lime or cement and why, and whether the scaffold is in.
If water is getting in
Washed out joints letting rain through
Call instead of using the form. If joints have washed out and rain is showing on the inside of a solid wall, or a stack is wet below the flashings, the water needs stopping before it gets into the plaster and timber.
On the first visit we look at where it is coming in, sheet the worst area or fill open joints temporarily, and price the full repointing once the wall has dried enough to judge. Standard work happens Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm. If water is coming in now, ring us, and a missed call gets a call back as soon as possible.
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
Who quotes for your walls
Our base is in Boscombe, an 8.1 mile drive away. We repoint across Wimborne Minster, Colehill, Merley, Furzehill, Pamphill and out to Corfe Mullen, all of which come under Dorset Council. Bournemouth Roofing & Building Ltd is the company, registered in England and Wales, number 15471719. Before you book a visit in Wimborne Minster, you can read our customers' Google reviews, word for word, on our reviews page.
Thomas Hannen owns and runs it, looks at your joints in person and writes the price himself. A verified customer rated us 10 out of 10 on Checkatrade. Neither the visit nor the itemised written quote costs you anything, so you can compare it freely.
Planning at a glance
Do you need planning permission in Wimborne Minster?
Most repairs in Wimborne Minster 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 Wimborne Minster |
|---|---|
| Who decides | Dorset Council is the planning authority for Wimborne Minster. Dorset Council's heritage pages set out what it controls. |
| Conservation area | Yes: Wimborne Minster Conservation Area and St Johns Rowlands Hill Conservation Area. They cover parts of Wimborne Minster, so check whether your street is inside one. |
| Listed buildings | Yes, there are listed buildings in and around Wimborne Minster. If yours is one, work can need listed building consent. |
| Protected landscape | No National Park or National Landscape covers Wimborne Minster. |
Questions
Questions about repointing in Wimborne Minster
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, not 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, not 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.
Nearby, and next door
Repointing near Wimborne Minster
Nearby places we also cover for repointing, with straight-line distances from Wimborne Minster, and the other trades we offer in Wimborne Minster itself.
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Our other trades in Wimborne Minster
Repointing guides
Lime or cement mortar: which do you need? Reading a repointing quote: rake out Listed building consent for repointing and re-renderingBuilders in Wimborne: all our building work Everything we do in Wimborne Repointing, all areas Every area we cover
Free quote
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.