Brickwork in Luton

New walls, structural openings, piers, chimneys, repointing and brick matching across Luton and Dunstable. Free quotes, and a straight answer on whether your brickwork needs repairing or rebuilding.

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Brickwork is the one part of a house you cannot hide behind a finish.

Plaster covers a multitude of sins. Brickwork does not. Perp joints that wander, a course that is not level, mortar that is the wrong strength for the brick, a bond that breaks at a corner. All of it stays visible for the life of the wall, and on a front elevation it is the first thing a buyer's eye lands on.

It is also the part most likely to be got wrong on mortar. Modern cement-rich mortar on a soft older Luton brick is harder than the brick itself, so when the wall moves, and every wall moves, the brick face spalls instead of the joint. That is why repointing an older house with the wrong mix does more damage over ten years than leaving it alone would have done. We match the mortar to the brick, not to the bag that was already on the van.

Brickwork is where BXC started and it is still the trade the rest of the work is built on. Everything from a garden wall to the full external envelope of a new detached house goes through the same gauge rods and the same string line.

Brickwork we take on

New brick and blockwork

External envelopes, extensions, garden and boundary walls, piers and retaining work. Set out properly with gauge rods so the courses land where they should at sill and lintel height.

Structural openings

Knocking through, forming openings and installing lintels or steels, with the beam sized by a structural engineer and bearing onto a proper padstone rather than onto hope.

Repointing

Raked out to a proper depth and repointed with a mortar matched in strength and colour to the existing wall. On soft older brick that means a lime-based mix, not a cement-rich one.

Brick matching and repairs

Sourcing a brick that matches an existing elevation, cutting out and replacing spalled or blown bricks, and rebuilding sections that have failed.

Chimney stacks

Rebuilds, repointing, re-flaunching and lead flashings. A stack is the most weather-beaten brickwork on the house and it is usually the first to go.

Cavity detailing

Cavity trays, weep vents, wall ties, insulation and damp proof course, which is the invisible half of brickwork and the half that decides whether the wall stays dry.

Brickwork questions we get asked in Luton

How much does brickwork cost per m2?

It is genuinely variable, because the brick itself, the bond, the height, the amount of cutting and whether you need scaffold all move the number a long way. A straight run of stretcher bond at ground level is not comparable to a corbelled detail or a curved garden wall. We come out and quote in writing for free, and the quote itemises materials and labour so you can see what you are buying.

What is the 3:4:5 rule for bricklaying?

It is how a bricklayer sets a genuine right angle without a large square. Measure three units along one line and four along the other, and when the diagonal between those two points is exactly five units the corner is square. It works because of Pythagoras, and it is how the corners on a building are set out before a single brick is laid.

How much should I pay a bricklayer per day?

Day rates for bricklaying vary with the region, the gang size and the type of work, and we would rather not publish a figure we cannot stand behind for every job. What we will do is quote your job as a fixed written price for a defined scope, which protects you from a slow day, or give you a rate in writing before anyone starts if you genuinely want day work.

Can you match the bricks on my house?

Usually, yes. Brick matching is a real skill and the closest match is often a reclaimed brick rather than a new one, particularly on older Luton stock where the original brick has weathered for a century. We will bring samples and hold them against the wall before ordering, rather than ordering and hoping.

Does my brickwork need repointing or rebuilding?

If the mortar is receding, crumbling or has been pointed previously in a hard cement mix, repointing is usually the answer. If the bricks themselves are spalling, the wall is bulging or the bed joints are stepping, that is movement and it needs looking at properly rather than pointing over. We will tell you which one you have got, with the reason.

Why does the mortar mix matter so much?

Because mortar is meant to be the sacrificial part of a wall. It should be weaker than the brick, so that when the wall moves the joint gives rather than the brick face. A cement-rich mortar on a soft brick reverses that, and the brick faces blow off instead. On older property we use a lime-based mix for exactly this reason.