Brickwork · Reading & Berkshire
Specialist Brickwork,
Pointing & Repairs
Across Reading & Berkshire
Hand-cut, hand-laid brickwork from a family team that built its reputation on this single craft — straight courses, clean joints, mortar that matches your house, finished without the mess most builders leave behind.
5.0 average from verified Google reviews Fully insured · 18 years building in Berkshire
Recent work
A look at projects across Berkshire.
What we do
Brickwork done properly — the first time.
Brickwork covers everything from a single garden wall to full structural elevations on an extension — laying brick, blockwork, repointing failing mortar joints, and matching repairs into existing Victorian or Edwardian walls.
Homeowners with a wall that's bulging, cracked or leaking; renovators who need an extension built that actually matches the original house; landlords whose chimneys or boundary walls need bringing back to safe condition.
When mortar starts crumbling out by hand, when you see step-cracking through brick courses, when a wall leans visibly off plumb, or when you're planning an extension and need the brickwork specced before drawings go to building control.
Bad brickwork is permanent. A non-specialist gets the mortar mix wrong and you'll be repointing again in five years, or worse, the wall fails inspection and has to come down. Specialist bricklayers price the job once and walk away from it for 50 years.
The cost of waiting
Failing brickwork doesn't stay still — it gets worse, faster, every winter.
What happens if it's ignored
- Open mortar joints let water in; that water freezes, expands and blows the face off your bricks within two or three winters.
- A bulging wall is a structural defect. Mortgage surveyors flag it, buyers walk away, and emergency rebuilds cost three to four times the price of doing it properly now.
- Damp patches inside the house are almost always failed pointing outside. Plaster gets ruined, skirtings rot, and you pay twice.
- Insurance claims for falling masonry — chimneys, parapets, garden walls — are routinely refused when the cause is documented as 'lack of maintenance'.
Mistakes we fix every month
- Hiring a general handyman who uses a strong cement mortar on a soft Victorian brick — within two years the brick face spalls off, not the mortar.
- Repointing only the worst patch instead of the whole elevation, leaving a visible scar and a weak point that fails next.
- Skipping the proper raking-out and just smearing fresh mortar over old — looks fine for six months, then falls out in sheets.
- Letting the chimney 'wait until next year' three years running, then needing scaffolding plus a rebuild instead of just a re-point.
Our process
A clear five-step system from first call to final handover.
- Step 1
Site Visit & Inspection
We come to you, measure up, photograph the site and listen properly to what you want from the brickwork.
- Step 2
Written Quote & Diagnosis
You get an itemised, fixed-price quote within 48 hours — labour, materials, timings and what's specifically excluded.
- Step 3
Schedule & Prepare
We agree a start date, order materials in advance and protect your home — dust sheets, walkways, skip placement.
- Step 4
Build & Communicate
Daily progress updates from your dedicated foreman. No subcontractor merry-go-round — you see the same faces every day.
- Step 5
Sign-Off & Handover
Final walk-around with you, snags fixed on the spot — we don't leave until you're happy with the finish.
What you get
Specific outcomes — not vague promises.
50-year brickwork
Properly specified lime or cement mortar matched to your brick — the joint outlasts the brick itself.
Structurally sound
We work to NHBC standards on every elevation, with movement joints, wall ties and DPCs detailed correctly.
Built to last
No comeback in three winters. Our pointing from 2008 is still tight today — we go back and photograph it.
Matched to your house
We hand-blend mortar on site to match colour and texture so repairs vanish into the original wall.
On-site in days, not months
Most pointing and repair jobs start within two weeks of accepting the quote — small jobs sooner.
Clean site, every day
Sheets down, off-cuts skipped, hands washed before we step inside. Your house, not a building site.
The detail
Materials, methods and variations for brickwork in Reading.
Brickwork in Berkshire ranges from soft hand-made Victorian stocks in Caversham and central Reading to wire-cut modern facing bricks in Newbury and Thatcham new-builds. Each needs a different mortar, a different joint profile and a different bricklayer's hand. Below is what we actually use, and why.
Materials we work with
- Facing bricks
- Ibstock, Wienerberger and Michelmersh handmade ranges for sensitive matching jobs; we keep a sample library and order on a 100-brick sample first to confirm under your daylight.
- Lime mortar (NHL 3.5)
- Mandatory on pre-1919 properties. Allows the wall to breathe and move; using cement here is the single biggest cause of brick-face spalling we see.
- Cement mortar (1:1:6)
- Standard mix for modern brick on extensions and new builds — plasticised, hawk-applied, struck to a weather joint.
- Reclaimed bricks
- Sourced from local reclaim yards in Reading and Pangbourne when matching extensions to period homes. Always cleaned, sorted and tested for frost resistance first.
Methods & techniques
- Repointing
- Joints raked out to 20mm minimum by hand or with a quirk, washed down, then pressed in two passes with a finger or weather-struck iron.
- Stitch repairs
- Helical stainless ties bedded into raked horizontal beds to repair stepped cracks without a full rebuild.
- Brick matching
- We photograph the existing wall under cloud-cover light and source from three suppliers minimum before showing you samples.
- Cavity wall construction
- Full-fill mineral wool or partial-fill PIR with stainless ties at 450mm centres, weep vents every fourth perp at DPC.
Common variations & situations
- Garden and boundary walls (single skin, 1.8m max without piers)
- Retaining walls with weep holes and engineered footings
- Chimney rebuilds above and below the roof line
- Period property repointing in lime mortar
- Extension elevations matched to existing house
- Decorative features — arches, plinths, dentil courses, soldier brick window heads
- Structural openings with new lintels and bearing pads
- Tuck pointing and bagging on character properties
Residential vs commercial
Residential brickwork is judged at three paces — colour match, joint finish and clean cuts matter more than raw speed. Commercial elevations (we work on small developments and shopfronts in Reading and Newbury) are judged on speed of build, NHBC compliance and consistency over hundreds of square metres. We have crews for both; the lead bricklayer is the same person from quote to handover either way.
Common questions
What homeowners in Reading ask before booking.
Related services
Often booked alongside brickwork
- Extensions — Single & double-storey extensions designed and built end-to-end.
- Groundworks — Foundations, drainage and site prep — done right the first time.
- Roofing — New roofs, re-roofs and repairs — pitched and flat.
Recent work
Recent brickwork projects across Reading & Berkshire.
Ready when you are
Get a fixed written quote for your brickwork — within 48 hours.
No high-pressure sales. No vague day rates. Just an itemised quote from a builder who's been on the tools for 18 years.
Fully insured 18 years on the tools Quote within 48 hours