BricklayerandBrickworkSpecialistinBroadstone
We're JFE Brickwork. Broadstone sits up on the sand and gravel of the heath plateau rather than down by the harbour, so the ground here drains fast and behaves differently to Poole just down the hill. We look at what's underneath before anything gets priced.
- Free, no-obligation quotation on every job
- NVQ Level 2 qualified and CSCS carded
- Five-year workmanship guarantee
- NVQ Level 2Diploma in Bricklaying
- CSCSCarded tradesman
- Up to £1mPublic liability cover
- 5 yearsWorkmanship guarantee
What building here is actually like
Broadstone sits on the heath, and that decides a footing here
Broadstone grew up around the railway junction from the 1870s, on ground that was open heath before that. The plateau it stands on is sand and clay over the Poole Formation, often capped with a layer of gravel, and it drains fast and stays acidic rather than holding water the way clay ground does further down towards the harbour. Garden soil on top is frequently imported, so what's visible tells us little about what a spade meets first. JFE Brickwork is run by Jack, who quotes and works every job himself, and who wants to see the ground before a wall is priced rather than guess at it. The older streets round the Broadway were built up as Victorian and Edwardian villas, with newer roads filling in through the twentieth century, so a repair here usually means matching one of those two eras of brick.
- Sand and gravel over the Poole Formation drain fast, so a trench here rarely holds water the way one on clay ground nearer the harbour does
- Pine and heather still grow close to the golf course and Broadstone Heath, and old root systems are worth checking before a footing goes in near mature trees
- The older housing round the Broadway is Victorian or Edwardian, from the town's railway-junction years, with later streets filling in through the twentieth century
JFE Brickwork
3 New Merrifield, Wimborne, Dorset, BH21 7AL
What we build and put right in Broadstone
Wall building is the bulk of it, with repointing, brick repairs and patios keeping us busy in between. Each one below says what that job usually means on this stretch of the plateau.
Brick and garden walls
Garden wall buildingNew walls and rebuilds on the plateau ground round the Broadway, where topsoil often sits over a fast-draining gravel cap.
Driveway wallsEntrance walls on the wider plots near the golf course, where a low wall either side of the drive sets off the house.
Retaining wallsGround that falls away towards Canford Heath means a bank held back rather than left to slip, especially where old pine roots run through it.
Decorative brickworkFlemish bond and the patterns most bricklayers avoid, which sit well against the Edwardian villas round the Broadway.
Brick piers and gate postsPiers at the entrance to the bigger Edwardian plots near the golf course, built to carry a proper gate rather than patched up.
Brick stepsThe plateau drops away in places towards the heath, so steps up to a front door or down to a garden are common here.
Brick plantersRaised beds that hold their soil on ground that drains as fast as this does, rather than losing it every time it rains.
EV charger wallsA short wall to mount a home charger on, usually set back off the drive on the newer Broadstone streets.
Repointing and brickwork repairs
Brickwork repointingMortar on the older Broadway villas has had well over a century of Dorset weather, and it usually goes first on the exposed side.
Brickwork repairsCracks and frost damage in brick that has sat on fast-draining, acidic heath ground for a hundred years or more.
Brick matchingVictorian and Edwardian brick round Broadstone was not made to one pattern, so a repair means hunting for a close match rather than ordering off a pallet.
Chimney repointing and repairsThe stack on an Edwardian villa is usually the oldest brickwork on the house, and the first part to lose its pointing.
Blocking up doorways and windowsOld openings bricked up to match the coursing on a Victorian or Edwardian frontage, which is where it shows if it is rushed.
Wall tie replacementCavity walls on the newer estates that filled in around Broadstone through the twentieth century, where corroded ties start pushing the courses apart.
Extension brickwork
Footings and foundationsGround here is sand and gravel over clay in bands, so the trial hole tells us the depth, not the postcode.
Cavity and structural wallsCavity walls on a rear extension to a Broadstone semi, brick matched to whichever era the house was actually built in.
Subcontract bricklayingBricklaying for a builder running a domestic job somewhere around Broadstone or the towns either side of it.
How a job in Broadstone runs
Four stages, whether it is a patch of pointing or a wall across the front.
We come and look at the job
Jack will personally visit your property. Up on the Broadstone plateau the ground often drains fast under a thin cap of topsoil, so we want to see what a wall or a footing is actually going into before anything is priced. You get a free, no-obligation quotation in writing.
We agree a start date
Once you are happy with the quotation, we order brick to match whichever era your house was actually built in, most often Victorian or Edwardian round Broadstone, then book you in and protect the ground around the work.
We build it
Footings go in to suit ground that can change from sandy to gravel-capped within a few feet, and the brickwork goes up to the standard our reviews describe. 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 leaves with us. We then walk you through the finished job, including the parts of it that are now below ground, so you know what you have had done.
What customers say
Taken word for word from our Google profile.
5.0
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.
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.
What people ask before they say yes in Broadstone
The questions that come up on the doorstep, answered straight.
Will my garden be left in a state?
We clean down and tidy the site at the end of every day, and all the waste leaves with us when the job is finished. You get your garden back, not a skip and a pile of sand.
Will we actually hear back from you?
Yes, and quickly. Replying fast and quoting promptly comes up again and again in our reviews, and it is the part of the service we are most careful about.
What if something goes wrong later?
Every job we complete carries a five-year workmanship guarantee. If something we built fails inside that time, we come back and put it right. We also carry public liability cover of up to £1 million.
Questions people in Broadstone ask us
If yours is not here, message us and we will answer it properly.
Do you cover Broadstone?
Yes. Broadstone is one of the towns where we advertise, on the post office board alongside Wimborne and Poole, and a fair amount of our work comes off the back of that and our Google reviews. JFE Brickwork is registered in Wimborne and works out of Ferndown, and we are over in Broadstone regularly. Message us and we will come and look at the job.
Does the ground up here make a difference to a garden wall?
It can. Broadstone sits on the watershed plateau above Poole, on sand and gravel over the Poole Formation clays, which drains fast and does not hold water the way clay ground further down towards the harbour does. Garden soil on top is often imported, so what you can see tells us very little about what is actually underneath. We dig a trial hole before we price a footing rather than guess from the surface.
My house is near the golf course or the Broadway. Is it in a conservation area?
Possibly. Broadstone has two conservation areas, Ridgeway and Broadstone Park, and Tudor Road and Golf Links Road, both set out to protect the Victorian and Edwardian character of those streets. As a general rule a new wall over a metre high next to a road, or over two metres elsewhere, needs planning permission anyway, and inside a conservation area the council takes a closer look at what a boundary wall is built from. Check with them before you commit, and we will build to whatever they ask for.
Can you match the brick on a Victorian or Edwardian Broadstone house?
Usually, and we will be honest about how close. The town grew up quickly around the railway junction from the 1870s onwards, so the brick on the older streets is not one uniform batch. We find the nearest match we can and set it in so the repair does not announce itself, and we will tell you before we start if an exact match is not possible.
Towns either side of Broadstone
The neighbouring towns we work in regularly, closest to Broadstone first.
Poole
Down the hill towards the harbour, where the ground turns to sand and salt.
Poole coverageWimborne
The address JFE Brickwork is registered to, a short run north of Broadstone.
Wimborne coverageFerndown
On the same sand-and-gravel arc that runs under the top of Broadstone.
Ferndown coverageBournemouth
The other side of Poole, and where we built the wall we are proudest of.
Bournemouth coverageGet 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