Mortar joints weather out, bricks spall in frost, lintels rust and crack the wall above them, and chimney stacks lean. We repoint, rebuild and repair brick and stone across Polperro and the rest of Polperro, PL13, on its own or as part of a larger roofing or building job. Because we're up on scaffold for roofing work all the time, we see the state of the brickwork that homeowners in Polperro can't, and we can deal with it while the access is there.
Repointing in Polperro
Repointing is the single most common masonry repair we do in Polperro, and the one most often done badly. The old joints have to be raked out to a proper depth, usually at least twice the width of the joint, not just scratched over. The new mortar has to match the original in type, colour and finish. And it has to be the right mortar for the wall.
That last point matters enormously in Polperro. The pre-1930s brick and stone houses that make up much of the town were built with lime mortar, which is soft and breathable and lets the wall dry out. Repoint them with hard cement mortar, as so many were in the 1970s and 80s, and the moisture can't escape through the joints, so it comes out through the bricks instead, blowing their faces off in the frost. We see the damage every week across Polperro, PL13. On old walls we use lime; on modern brickwork we use a matched cement mortar. We'll tell you which your house needs and why.
Brick and stone repairs
- Chimney stacks taken down and rebuilt, repointed, or reduced and capped if redundant. The most exposed brickwork on any Polperro house and the most often in need of work.
- Spalled and cracked bricks cut out and replaced with matching reclaimed bricks so the repair disappears.
- Cracked lintels and arches replaced, including the rusting steel lintels in 1930s and 60s houses that crack the brickwork above windows.
- Garden and boundary walls rebuilt or repaired, including the retaining walls that fail on the sloping plots around Polperro.
- Parapet walls, copings and string courses repaired and re-bedded, with proper DPC and weathering so they stop leaking into the wall below.
- Stone walls, quoins and dressings on period properties, repaired in matching stone and lime.
- Crack repairs using helical bar stitching where movement has opened up the brickwork.
Chimneys and roofing together
If a chimney in Polperro needs repointing, rebuilding or capping, it's cheapest to do while the scaffold is up for roof work, and we'll always point that out when we quote. The same applies to parapets, gable walls and the brickwork around dormers. One scaffold, one visit, one invoice. See our chimney repairs page for the roofing side of the same job.
Matching the original
A repair should disappear. We match reclaimed bricks for colour, size and texture, we gauge mortar colour with sand samples against the existing joints, and we copy the original joint finish, whether that's flush, weatherstruck, bucket-handle or recessed. On the listed and conservation-area properties across Polperro, PL13 we'll work with the conservation officer where needed and use lime putty mortar where the original was lime.
Render and painting
Many houses in Polperro are rendered or painted rather than exposed brick. We repair blown render and repaint masonry too; see our render repairs and exterior painting pages. Where render has failed because the brickwork behind it needs attention, we deal with both.
How a repointing job in Polperro runs
We start by matching the mortar. A sample of the original is taken from a hidden spot, and we gauge the sand colour and the lime or cement mix against it so the new joints blend with the old. The old joints are then raked out to the right depth with hand tools or a careful grinder, never a wide disc that chews the brick edges, and the wall is brushed and damped down. Pointing goes in with a finger trowel in two passes, finished to match the original joint profile, and is protected from rain and strong sun while it cures. On lime work in Polperro that means a few days of keeping the wall damp under hessian. Any spalled bricks are cut out and replaced before pointing starts. We work from scaffold or towers on upper floors and gables, and we leave the ground clean. A typical gable end in Polperro, PL13 is two to three days; a whole terrace frontage, a week.
When brickwork needs more than pointing
Cracks that run through bricks rather than just along the joints, walls that bulge or lean, and brickwork that has separated from a window frame or a neighbouring wall all suggest movement. We'll tell you when that's the case and what it needs: helical bar stitching across the crack, a new lintel, a rebuilt section, or an engineer's opinion first. We won't point over a structural crack in Polperro and pretend it's fixed.
Garden and retaining walls
The sloping plots around Polperro mean a lot of houses have retaining walls holding back a garden or a drive, and these fail in a particular way: the wall bows outward at the middle, the coping lifts, and the joints open as the soil behind pushes and the water behind it has nowhere to go. We rebuild retaining walls with proper drainage behind them, weep holes through them and a damp-proof course under the coping, so the new wall doesn't do the same thing in ten years. Boundary walls that have been hit by a car or undermined by tree roots are rebuilt on a new footing where needed, re-using the original bricks or stone wherever they're sound.
Brickwork and pointing across Polperro and Polperro, PL13
Polperro Roofing is based in Polperro and works across Polperro, PL13 and the surrounding parts of Cornwall. We give written quotes after seeing the wall, we photograph the raked-out joints before pointing so you can see the depth, and we clear up properly afterwards.