BricklayerandBrickworkSpecialistinSalisbury
The middle of the city sits on soft river ground where the Avon, the Nadder and the Bourne meet, and it turns to chalk as the ground climbs out of the valley. That decides the footing under a wall, so we look at it before we put a price on anything.
- 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 the ground does in Salisbury
Soft in the middle of the city, chalk up the sides
Salisbury grew up on alluvium and valley gravel, right where the Avon, the Nadder and the Bourne meet, and it has since climbed onto Upper Chalk and plateau gravel heading north toward Old Sarum and south over Harnham Hill. There is no single answer to how deep a footing goes here. Down on the valley floor the ground is soft and the water table sits high through winter, because the chalk aquifer fills and pushes water toward the surface. Up on the chalk it is firmer and it drains, but chalk lifts with frost and turns to putty if a trench stands open in the rain. Whatever the map says, there is usually imported topsoil over the top of it, which is the real reason we dig before we quote.
- On the valley floor we plan for soft ground and water in the trench right through winter
- On the chalk the footing goes down past the frost line, and anything soft comes out until we are on firm chalk
- Flint and lime-mortared walls are not work we take on, and we will say so on the visit rather than after it
Chalk and river valley groundJFE Brickwork
3 New Merrifield, Wimborne, Dorset, BH21 7AL
Brickwork we take on in Salisbury
Wall building is the backbone of what we do here, with repointing, brick repairs and patios alongside it. Find the one closest to your job and it will tell you what is involved and how the work runs. All of it is new, cement-bonded brickwork. Lime mortar and heritage repointing are jobs we turn down, and in a city built on this much listed and conservation-area fabric, that is worth saying at the top rather than the bottom.
Brick and garden walls
Garden wall buildingThe footing is the part that changes across this city, so we dig before we say what a wall involves.
Driveway wallsEntrance walls and low returns, on the terraces where a front garden's been given over to parking.
Retaining wallsFor a garden that steps up off the valley floor, on the climb toward Harnham Hill or Old Sarum.
Decorative brickworkFlint and chequerwork are all over the old city, so plain stretcher bond can look thin against it. A Flemish bond in new brick is our usual answer.
Brick piers and gate postsA pier carries more than the wall either side of it, and on frost-prone chalk that means its own footing.
Brick stepsNew flights and rebuilds, up to a raised terrace door or down toward a garden that falls away to the river.
Brick plantersRaised beds built to match the house, useful where the soil sitting over chalk is thin to start with.
EV charger wallsA short brick wall to hang a charger on, for a terraced house with no garage wall to fix it to.
Repointing and brickwork repairs
Brickwork repointingCement mortar on cement-bonded brick. If a wall was built in lime, and plenty in this city were, that's a lime job and not one we take on.
Brickwork repairsBrick that sits low and damp on the valley floor is what a hard frost gets into first.
Brick matchingThe Victorian reds around Fisherton and Wilton Road are the trickiest match in the city, and we will say honestly how close we can get.
Chimney repointing and repairsRepointing and rebuilds at the stack, often the one part of an older terrace nobody has touched since it went up.
Blocking up doorways and windowsAn old opening bricked up to read as wall, matched to the brick either side of it first.
Wall tie replacementThe post-war estates out at Bishopdown and Bemerton Heath are cavity built, and old ties there are worth checking before they push the outer skin.
Extension brickwork
Footings and foundationsChalk is good ground once you are actually on it. Soft chalk comes out until what is left is firm, and a trench left open in the rain turns to putty.
Cavity and structural wallsCavity and structural brickwork on a domestic extension, matched to whatever's already on the house.
Subcontract bricklayingBricklaying for a builder running a domestic job in the city.
How a Salisbury job runs
Four stages, whatever the job is. The first one matters most here.
We come and look at the job
Jack comes out to see what is under the wall as much as the wall itself, because the answer is different on the valley floor than it is up on the chalk. You get a free, no-obligation quotation in writing off the back of that visit.
We agree a start date
We match the brick before anything is ordered, which takes longer against a Victorian red round Fisherton than against something modern. Then the materials go on order, you get a date, and everything round the work gets protected.
We build it
Footings go in to whatever the ground actually gives us, not what we hoped for going in. The work is carried out to a high standard and the site is left clean and tidy at the end of every day.
We walk you through it
Everything gets cleaned down, all the waste leaves with us, and we walk you round the finished job so you can tell us you are happy with it before we go.
What customers say when the job is finished
Word for word from the Google profile. None of these are Salisbury jobs, and we will not pretend otherwise.
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.
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 Things People Ask Before They Say Yes
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 Salisbury ask us
If yours is not here, send it over and you will get a straight answer.
Do you actually cover Salisbury?
Yes, though we will be straight with you about it. JFE Brickwork is registered in Wimborne and works out of Ferndown, and the patch we describe is Dorset and into Hampshire. Salisbury is over the border in Wiltshire, at the edge of what we take on, so it is a city we travel up to for the right job rather than one we are in every day. Tell us what the job is and where in the city it is, and Jack will give you a straight yes or no rather than a maybe.
My wall is flint, or it's built in lime mortar. Can you repoint it?
No, and we would rather say so than have a go. Flint sits in bands right through the chalk here, so knapped flint walls with brick dressings turn up in and around the city, and the older ones were built in lime. Cement pointing on that kind of wall traps the damp and pushes the faces off the flint. Lime mortar and heritage repointing are not services we offer. If that is what your wall needs, you want a lime specialist, and we will tell you so on the visit rather than let you find out later.
Do I need permission for a garden wall in Salisbury?
Often not, but check before you order bricks. As a general rule you need planning permission for a wall over one metre next to a road used by vehicles, or over two metres anywhere else. On top of that, a large part of the city centre sits inside the City of Salisbury Conservation Area, and there are hundreds of listed buildings scattered through it, so taking down or altering a wall in either case can need consent of its own. Wiltshire Council is the authority to ask, and we will flag it at the quote if we think your job touches it.
How deep do footings need to go here?
It depends where in the city you are, which is why we dig rather than guess. On the alluvium and valley gravel in the middle the ground is softer and wet through winter, so the footing goes down until we are into something that will actually carry the wall. On the chalk it goes down past the frost line, because chalk lifts, and if what we find is soft chalk it comes out until we reach firm chalk underneath. That gets settled on the visit, before you have a figure.
Towns near Salisbury we also work in
Nearest first, following the Avon back down toward Dorset.
Fordingbridge
Straight down the Avon valley from the city, on the Hampshire bank.
Bricklayer in FordingbridgeRingwood
The next town down the valley, well inside the patch we work.
Bricklayer in RingwoodVerwood
Over the Dorset border on the heath, one of the towns we're in regularly.
Bricklayer in VerwoodWimborne
The address JFE Brickwork is registered to.
Bricklayer in WimborneFerndown
Where we work out of, down in Dorset on the A31.
Bricklayer in FerndownGet 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