BricklayerandBrickworkSpecialistinBournemouth
We work across Bournemouth, where almost every wall standing today is Victorian or later, and the ground under it changes from one road to the next. That changes what goes in underneath a new wall, and what a repair has to match above it.
- Free, no-obligation quotation on every job
- NVQ Level 2 qualified, CSCS carded
- 5-year workmanship guarantee
- NVQ Level 2Diploma in Bricklaying
- CSCSCarded tradesman
- Up to £1mPublic liability cover
- 5 yearsWorkmanship guarantee
Local knowledge
What is actually under a Bournemouth garden, and what it does to a wall
Bournemouth sits in the Poole Basin, on Eocene beds that are mostly sand but carry clay and silt through them: Branksome Sand under the older, central and western parts of the town, Boscombe Sand from around the pier eastward. The cliffs are where you see that sand plainly. Inland it is usually buried, and roughly half the district has later gravel, head and alluvium sitting on top, so a trench in an ordinary garden goes through topsoil, then something gravelly or clayey, and only then reaches sand. Where the sand does come up it behaves differently to clay: it will not shrink and swell through a dry summer, but it runs while a trench is open and washes through the back of a retaining wall if the drainage is wrong. What you can see in a border tells you very little about what is a spade down.
- Where a trench runs into clean sand it will not hold its own side, so a footing gets dug and filled rather than left standing open overnight.
- These sands carry pyrite in places, and where it weathers the groundwater comes up acidic and iron-stained. Worth knowing before anything goes in below ground.
- Before about 1810 this was open heath, so almost nothing in Bournemouth is older than Victorian. A repair here is matching Victorian, Edwardian or interwar brick.
What we build and put right in Bournemouth
Wall building is the bulk of the work here, with repointing, brick repairs and patios keeping the diary full in between. Each one below says what that job usually means in this town.
Brick and garden walls
Garden wall buildingOn sand, the footing is most of the job and the part nobody ever sees.
Driveway wallsAlong the cliff-top roads the flint gravel cap digs out easily, so the depth is set on site.
Retaining wallsBournemouth falls away into the chines, so plenty of gardens step down. Sand behind a wall needs somewhere to go.
Decorative brickworkBournemouth is where Jack built the semi-bespoke bond wall we are proudest of, a pattern a lot of bricklayers will not take on.
Brick piers and gate postsThe larger villa plots around Talbot Woods and Meyrick Park were laid out with piers at the entrance. A pier gets rebuilt, not patched.
Brick stepsGround that drops towards the chines and the cliffs leaves a lot of Bournemouth gardens on two or three levels.
Brick plantersRaised beds built to match the house, which here usually means a Victorian red or an interwar facing.
EV charger wallsThe older Bournemouth stock was built long before garages, so the charger often needs a small wall of its own.
Repointing and brickwork repairs
Brickwork repointingWeather comes off the bay from the south and west, and that is usually the elevation where the mortar has gone first.
Brickwork repairsA soft face that stays wet through a Bournemouth winter spalls at the first hard frost. Better caught in autumn.
Brick matchingBournemouth brick was made from local clay, so matching a Victorian red takes hunting rather than a catalogue.
Chimney repointing and repairsA stack on a cliff-top or Overcliff road takes the full weather off the sea, and it shows in the mortar first.
Blocking up doorways and windowsPlenty of the big Bournemouth villas have been split into flats, so openings get closed up and then have to look like they never existed.
Wall tie replacementCavity walls came in with the interwar suburbs north of the centre, so this is a job for those streets rather than the seafront ones.
Extension brickwork
Footings and foundationsOn loose ground the footing usually goes deeper than people expect, and that gets decided in the hole, not on paper.
Cavity and structural wallsOn a rear extension to a Bournemouth semi, matching the existing brick is half the argument before a course goes down.
Subcontract bricklayingBricklaying for a builder running a domestic job in Bournemouth or the towns either side of it.
How a Bournemouth job runs
Four stages, whether it is a patch of repointing in Winton or a new wall on the Overcliff.
We come and look at the job
Message us and Jack will usually be out that week to see it in person. In Bournemouth the first thing worth checking is what the wall is standing on and which way the ground falls, because on sand that decides the job more than the brickwork does. You get a free, no-obligation quotation in writing.
We agree a start date
This is where the brick gets sorted. On a Victorian or interwar house that means finding a match before anything is ordered, not hoping one turns up on site. Then we book you in and protect the ground around the work.
We build it
Footings go in and get filled the same day rather than standing open in sandy ground. The wall goes up to a high standard, and the site is left clean and tidy at the end of every day.
We walk you through it
Everything is cleaned down and all the waste goes with us. Then we walk you round the finished job, including the parts that are now buried, so you can see exactly what went into it.
What people say once the wall is up
Word for word from the Google profile.
5.0
Rosemary Collins
Jack did an excellent job rebuilding a section of our garden wall and repairing cracks in other sections despite having to work through challenging weather conditions and unexpected complications in relation to the groundwork.
Dane Gardner
Jack is a real craftsman who repaired my steps and repointed my patio to a very high standard. From the start he was good at communicating, replying to messages quickly and providing a prompt quote.
James Hickman
Jack was excellent from first inquiry to the finished product. We needed an old set of French doors bricking up to match our existing window still height.
The bits people ask about before they say yes
The questions that come up on the doorstep, answered straight.
Will my garden be left in a state?
The site gets cleaned down and tidied at the end of every day, and all the waste leaves with us when the job is finished.
Will I actually hear back from you?
Message us on a Monday and we will usually have looked at the job by the end of that week, with the quote to you by the weekend.
What if something goes wrong later?
The work carries a five-year workmanship guarantee. If something we built fails within that time, we come back and put it right.
Questions from Bournemouth
The ones that only really come up in this town.
Do you cover Bournemouth?
Yes. We work out of Ferndown, with the business based in Wimborne, and we are over in Bournemouth regularly, along with Poole, Christchurch and Broadstone. Message us and we will come and look at the job, usually that same week, with a free, no-obligation quotation to follow in writing.
My house is in a conservation area. Does that change anything?
It can. Bournemouth has a run of conservation areas, including East Cliff, West Cliff and Poole Hill, Meyrick Park and Talbot Woods, Westbourne, and Boscombe Manor and Spa, and BCP Council is the planning authority for all of them. A new wall over a metre high next to a road, or over two metres elsewhere, normally needs permission anyway. Taking down an old boundary wall in a conservation area is worth a phone call to the council before anyone starts. We will tell you where we think you stand, but the council has the final word.
Why does the ground matter so much round here?
Because the ground here is mostly sand-based rather than the heavy clay much of England builds on, and that cuts both ways. Sand does not shrink and swell through a dry summer, so you see less of the seasonal cracking that plagues walls further inland. What it does instead is run: it will not hold a trench side on its own, and it will find its way through the back of a retaining wall if there is nowhere for the water to drain. It is not clean sand the whole way down, either. There are clay and silt bands inside these formations, and inland most gardens have gravel or clayey head sitting over the top, which is why the depth gets set in the trench rather than guessed from the road.
Can you match the brick on a Victorian Bournemouth house?
Usually, and it is worth the effort. The town went up as a Victorian resort and the bricks were made from local clay, so the reds and buffs on an older Bournemouth villa are not something you pick off a modern pallet. Solid Victorian walls here are often laid in Flemish bond, which the repair has to follow as well as the colour. We will tell you honestly how close a match we can get before we start.
Do you build the decorative bonds, or just straight walls?
Both. The wall we are proudest of is a semi-bespoke pattern built in Bournemouth, a skilled bond that a lot of bricklayers will not take on because it is more time consuming, so it costs more to lay. If that is what you want, say so when we quote and we will price it properly rather than talk you out of it.
Towns either side of Bournemouth
The nearest places we work, if you have landed on the wrong one.
Poole
Straight along the coast, and the other market town that keeps us busiest.
Bricklayer in PooleChristchurch
The other side of the river, where the ground and the building stock both change.
Bricklayer in ChristchurchFerndown
Just north, on the same arc of Branksome Sand that runs under the top of Bournemouth.
Bricklayer in FerndownBroadstone
North west of the town, and one of the post offices we advertise in.
Bricklayer in BroadstoneWimborne
The address JFE Brickwork is registered to, a short run up from Bournemouth.
Bricklayer in WimborneGet a free quote
Tell us what you need and we'll come back with a price. No pressure, no hard sell.
Prefer to talk? Call JFE Brickwork on 01202 028 343