Garden walls, repointing, chimneys, brick repairs and full new-build brickwork across Poole, Bournemouth and Dorset. Twenty years of it, and it's still what we're known for.
Bricklaying is where MNM started and it is still the bulk of what we do. Everything from a single dropped pier to the full envelope of a new build.
Free-standing walls, retaining walls, piers and pillars, planters and steps. Proper foundations, the right brick for the exposure, and copings that actually shed water. The most common job we're called for.
Raking out and replacing failed mortar, replacing spalled or frost-damaged bricks, cutting out and rebuilding cracked sections. Lime or cement depending on the age of the wall — not a one-size-fits-all.
Repointing stacks, rebuilding above the roofline, re-flaunching pots and renewing lead flashing. Chimneys take the worst of the coastal weather and are usually the first thing on a house to go.
Full brick and block work from foundations to wall plate — extensions, garages, porches and new builds. Cavity work, insulation, lintels and DPCs done to building regs and signed off.
Arches, soldier courses, corbelling, brick-on-edge detail, and matching into existing walls so new work doesn't announce itself. The part that separates a bricklayer from someone who lays bricks.
Sub-contract brickwork for builders and developers across Dorset. Site-ready, insured, and used to working to someone else's programme.
Building near the water is not the same as building inland, and it shows in the brickwork within about ten years.
Walls around Poole Harbour, Sandbanks and the Bournemouth cliffs take wind-driven rain carrying salt. That accelerates mortar erosion and causes spalling — where the face of the brick blows off after a frost. South and west elevations always go first, which is why we quote by elevation rather than by the whole house.
For anything exposed we use an F2 frost-resistant brick with the right soluble salt rating. It costs a little more per thousand and it's the difference between a wall that lasts and one that's crumbling in a decade.
A lot of Poole and Bournemouth housing stock is solid-wall Victorian and Edwardian. Those walls were built to breathe. Repointing them in hard cement traps moisture and moves the damage into the brick face — a much dearer problem than the pointing you were trying to fix.
What homeowners across Poole and Bournemouth ask us most.
It comes down to length, height, whether it needs foundations digging and which brick you want matched. A short single-skin garden wall is a very different job from a retaining wall holding back a bank. We come out, measure it and give you a fixed price — we don't quote brickwork over the phone.
Repointing is raking out tired mortar between bricks and replacing it. If the joints are crumbling, sandy to the touch, or you can push a key into them, it's due. Left alone, water gets into the wall and the problem stops being cosmetic. A wall facing the prevailing south-westerly around Poole Harbour will need it sooner than a sheltered one.
Usually, yes. Between reclaimed stock and the current ranges we can get very close on colour, size and texture. Victorian and Edwardian bricks around Poole and Bournemouth were often locally made and slightly larger than modern metric, so it's worth doing properly rather than accepting a near-enough match that shows for the next fifty years.
Older solid-wall properties generally want a lime mortar. Lime lets the wall breathe and move; hard cement traps moisture and pushes the damage into the brick face itself, which is far more expensive to put right. If someone quotes you cement on a period property without discussing it, ask why.
Yes. Rebuilding a pier, a collapsed section of garden wall, a chimney repair — we take those on alongside the bigger builds. Plenty of our work comes from someone ringing about one dropped wall.
Based in Poole, covering the BH and DT postcodes. If you're within about half an hour of us, we're local.
Not sure who to trust with the job? Read how to find a reliable builder in Poole, or see our loft conversions page.
Free estimate, no obligation. We'll come out, look at the job, and give you a straight price.