Bricklaying in Sunderland

A single elevation on a typical house is usually a matter of days rather than weeks, though weather has a real effect because pointing should not be carried out in frost or in heavy rain.

Often yes. If the brickwork below the roofline is sound, a rebuild above the roofline plus new flaunching and flashings is the usual and much less disruptive option.

As a general rule a wall up to two metres is permitted, dropping to one metre where it adjoins a highway used by vehicles or a footpath beside one. Different limits apply to listed buildings and some conservation areas, so it is worth confirming before the foundation goes in.

Sunderland comes under Sunderland City Council for both planning and building control. That is where a building regulations application is made and where the inspector who signs the work off comes from. Boundary wall height rules and, in conservation areas, mortar and joint specification is what they will be looking for.

Possibly, depending on exactly where the property sits. Sunderland has a number of designated conservation areas, Ashbrooke and Roker Park among them, and if your property sits inside one the council will want to see materials and window details before anything visible from the street changes. If your property is affected, the design is shaped around that from the start rather than revised afterwards.

Yes. Alongside Sunderland we regularly carry out bricklaying in Washington, Houghton-le-Spring, Boldon Colliery and across the wider North East, working from our base in Blaydon-on-Tyne.

Yes. Workmanship is guaranteed for an agreed period which we confirm in writing before starting.

All of them. Around Roker and Ashbrooke the stock is mostly Victorian and Edwardian terraces around Ashbrooke, Millfield and Roker, and further out Sunderland has post war and later estates out toward Doxford Park, Silksworth and Farringdon. The right approach depends far more on the age and construction of the individual property than on the town.

We take a sample and source the closest available match before ordering. On Victorian and Edwardian property an exact match is rarely available, so the joint profile and mortar colour do a lot of the work in making the new blend with the old.

They can. Sunderland sits on the edge of the Durham coalfield and takes in the site of the former Wearmouth Colliery, so parts of the city fall inside a Coal Authority Development High Risk Area. We raise it at the quote stage rather than after the digger arrives, so you know whether an investigation or an assessment is likely to be needed.