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Brick repair & brickwork — Flintshire & Deeside
Brick Repair & Brickwork
in Flintshire & Deeside
Flintshire is our home ground. Quirks Property Maintenance Ltd works out of Ewloe, so brick repairs in Hawarden, Buckley, Mold and along Deeside are on our own doorstep. We replace blown and broken bricks, rebuild corners and piers that have failed, put garden walls back up and brick up old openings. Part of our brick repair and brickwork service across North Wales, Cheshire and Wirral.
5.0★★★★★Based on 100+ Google reviews
20+years trading
£5 millionpublic liability insurance in place
Workmanship guarantee on completed worksOne contractorAll trades under one roof
In short: brick repairs across Flintshire and Deeside from our base in Ewloe — damaged bricks replaced, failed corners and piers rebuilt, garden walls repaired and openings bricked up.
Local brickwork
Why brickwork fails in Flintshire
Flintshire’s brick tells you where you are. Buckley made bricks for some 250 years, and the hard cream, buff and blue bricks its works turned out can still be found in walls around the county. The terraces of Shotton, Connah’s Quay and Queensferry grew up with the steelworks and the river trade, and the older cottages towards Holywell and Halkyn are as likely to be stone as brick.
What damages them is less local. Hard bricks shrug off frost but are unforgiving to match, so a repair in the wrong brick can show for years. Softer bricks on an exposed gable above the Dee can lose their faces where rain is driven into them. And on Deeside’s industrial estates the usual cause is simpler: a forklift, a wagon or a reversing van. A postcode is not a diagnosis, though. What a wall needs is decided from the photographs, or from the wall itself.
Areas of Flintshire and Deeside we cover
- Ewloe, Hawarden and Connah’s Quay — CH5
- Shotton, Queensferry, Sandycroft and Deeside Industrial Park — CH5
- Broughton, Saltney and Penyffordd — CH4
- Buckley, Mold and Northop — CH7
- Flint — CH6
- Holywell — CH8
- Hope and Caergwrle — LL12
We cover the CH5 to CH8 postcode districts, the Flintshire side of CH4 — Saltney, Broughton and Penyffordd — and Hope and Caergwrle in LL12.
We also cover Chester and Ellesmere Port, the Wirral and Wrexham.
FLINTSHIRE — HOUSE
Recent brick repair project
Brickwork at the corner of a house in Flintshire had started to break up at low level, beside a downpipe and above block paving. Joints and bricks had cracked, and the faces had broken away from some of the bricks near the base. Damaged bricks at the corner were replaced.
Cracked joints and broken brick faces at the corner
The first photograph looks at the lower part of the corner. A joint has cracked along its length, a crack runs across the brick beneath it, and below that the face of a brick has broken away.
The second photograph shows the corner a little higher, beside the downpipe, with chipped brick edges and another cracked joint. We have not named a cause in this case study: the photographs show the damage, not what produced it.
Damaged bricks replaced
The damaged bricks at the corner were replaced with new bricks, set into the existing courses.
New brick is the cleanest thing on an old wall for a while, and the difference lessens as weather works on it.
The corner with its replacement bricks
In the finished photograph, replacement bricks are set into the corner with fresh mortar around them. They are visibly newer than the wall beside them, and the corner reads as continuous brickwork.
Damaged bricks at one corner of the house were replaced. This case study covers that repair only.
- Damaged bricks at the corner replaced
Project Information
| Issue | Cracked joints and broken brick faces at a corner, at low level |
| Service | Brick repair |
| Works | Damaged bricks replaced |
| Property | House |
| Location | Flintshire |
What customers say about our brickwork
Four of the reviews our customers have left on Google.
★★★★★5.0 · 100+ Google reviews★★★★★“Really pleased with the work Quirks Property Maintenance did for me. They replaced two lintels above my windows following a recommendation from my surveyor, stitched the brickwork and repointed everything beautifully. They did a great job and left everything really tidy afterwards. They were also very helpful and kind throughout, and were always happy to explain what they were doing and answer my questions, which I really appreciated. The finished work looks great and I’d definitely recommend them.”
★★★★★“Effective, efficient and friendly service. Quirks carried out installation of a new steel lintel and step crack repair above my front door. They were methodical, explained the process to me at different stages and liaised with building control. They did a really great job!”
★★★★★“Fantastic service and a company we would highly recommend. We used Quirks to resolve a long standing damp problem in our old Victorian house. We have had a new roof, replaced guttering and soil pipes but the wall remained wet. They resolved the problem by repointing the outside wall. The team arrived just after 7 each morning and worked until dark. They cleaned up each day and were always friendly and helpful. We’ll definitely use their services again”
★★★★★“… blocking up an old dryer vent — you genuinely can’t tell where the old vent was, it looks great.”
Brick damage we repair
Most brick damage starts small, and small is when it is easiest to put right. These are the problems we are asked to look at most:
- Spalled or “blown” bricks — the face of the brick flaking, crumbling or coming away
- Bricks cracked, chipped or knocked out by impact — a vehicle, a gate, a fallen branch
- Loose, missing or frost-shattered bricks near the ground, under sills and at the tops of walls
- A corner, a pier or a length of wall that has bulged, dropped or been pushed out of line
- Garden and boundary walls that lean, have lost their coping or have come apart at one end
- Openings that are no longer wanted — an old vent, a doorway, a window, a garage door
If you can see any of these, send a photo on WhatsApp or by email and we will tell you what we think it needs.
The cause
Why bricks fail
Brick is hard-wearing, but it is not waterproof. Nearly every damaged brick we replace has the same history: water got into it, could not get out again, and froze. Ice takes up more room than water, so each hard frost prises a little more of the face away — bricklayers call it spalling. With the fired face gone, the softer inside of the brick takes in water faster still.
What puts the water there is usually one of a short list:
- A leaking gutter, downpipe or overflow soaking the same patch of wall
- Hard cement mortar on an older, softer brick — the joint stays sound, so the water leaves through the brick instead
- Ground levels, paving or soil banked up against the wall
- Missing or failed copings on garden walls, parapets and chimney stacks
- Pressure washing or sandblasting that has taken the fired face off the brick
- Impact — vehicles, gates, scaffolding and storm debris
Replacing the bricks without dealing with the cause only buys time. So the first thing we look for is where the water is coming from. Where we can put that right as well — a gutter, a coping, the pointing — we tell you, and price it in the same quotation.
- Under a leaking gutter or downpipe
- Below window sills
- The first courses above the ground
- Chimney stacks and parapets
- Garden wall tops where the coping has gone
- Corners and gateposts in the path of vehicles
Brick repairs and small brickwork
Single replacement brick with fresh mortar round it in the base course of a wall
Damaged bricks replaced
Spalled, cracked and broken bricks cut out one at a time and replaced in the closest match we can find.
Brick pier at the corner of a front porch, rebuilt in matching brick with a concrete cap, standing on block paving
Failed sections rebuilt
Corners, piers and the brickwork under a sill or over an opening taken down to sound brick and rebuilt.
Red brick garden wall with a blue brick plinth and coping, and brick piers with stone caps along the pavement
Garden and boundary walls
Leaning, cracked and storm-damaged walls repaired or rebuilt, with new copings and piers where they are needed.
Opening in a red brick wall bricked up to sill height and finished with a soldier course, with a sheet covering the space above
Openings bricked up
Old vents, doorways, windows and garage door openings closed in brickwork to match the wall.
The method
How we repair brickwork
- The cause first. We look at why the brick failed — water, frost, the wrong mortar, movement or impact — before we decide what comes out.
- Cut out, not covered up. Damaged bricks are cut out one at a time, so the sound bricks around them stay where they are.
- The closest match. Replacement bricks are chosen for size, colour and texture — reclaimed where a new brick would stand out — and bedded in a mortar that suits the wall.
- Rebuilt where it has to be. Where a corner, a pier or a section has moved or been knocked out, we take it down to sound brickwork and rebuild it, toothed back into the wall on both sides.
- Pointed and left clean. New joints are finished to the profile of the old ones, the wall is brushed down and the waste goes with us.
- Where an exposed wall keeps taking in rain, we can finish the repair with a breathable rain-repellent treatment — one that lets the wall dry out, not a sealer.
Matching
Getting the match right
A brick repair is judged from the pavement. Three things decide whether it disappears into the wall or stands out for years.
- Size. Houses built before metric bricks came in, around 1970, were laid in imperial sizes, and in this part of the country those are usually taller than today’s 65 mm brick. A modern brick in an old wall throws the courses out, so older walls generally need reclaimed or imperial-sized replacements.
- Colour and texture. We take the match from the wall itself, not from a catalogue, and tell you before we start how close we expect to get. New bricks in an old wall rarely look identical on the first day; they tone in as they weather.
- Mortar. Older, softer bricks need a mortar that is weaker than they are, which usually means lime. Strong cement on soft brick is one of the commonest causes of the damage we are called to repair, so we do not repeat it.
Small brickwork
Garden walls, boundary walls and small brickwork
Not every brickwork job is a repair to the house. We also take on the small brickwork that is often hard to find a bricklayer for:
- Garden and boundary walls repaired, part-rebuilt or taken down and rebuilt
- New copings, pier caps and gateposts
- Brick steps
- Openings bricked up to match the wall around them
- Brickwork made good where a vent, a flue or a pipe has been taken out
What we do not do is build extensions or new houses. If the job is a wall, a pier, a set of steps or a repair, send us a photo. If it is an extension, we are not the right firm.
Stonework
Stone walls and stonework
We repair stone as well as brick. Loose, slipped or fallen stone in a house wall or a boundary wall is taken out, re-bedded and pointed in a mortar that suits the stone — lime on older walls. Send a photo of the wall and we will tell you whether it is a repair we take on, and what it involves.
Diagnosis
Is it the brick, the mortar or the wall?
Three different faults get called “the brickwork”, and each needs a different repair.
- The bricks themselves are damaged — faces flaking off, bricks cracked through or missing. That is brick repair, and it is what this page is about.
- The bricks are sound but the joints are open, sandy or crumbling. That is repointing.
- The wall has cracked — in steps along the joints, in a line down the wall, or above a door or window. The cause has to be found first: see wall and brick crack repair, and lintel repair and replacement where the crack starts over an opening.
Chimney stacks have their own page, chimney repairs, and so does damp showing indoors behind damaged brickwork: penetrating damp. If you are not sure which of these you are looking at, send the photo anyway and we will point you to the right repair.
Who it is for
Who we work for
Homeowners
From three blown bricks under a window to a garden wall brought down in a storm, quoted in writing before anything starts.
Landlords and letting agents
Repairs to rented houses and shared boundary walls, arranged with the tenant, with photographs and an invoice for your records.
Commercial and public buildings
Impact damage to units, yards and car parks, and defective brickwork on shops, schools and care homes, with risk assessments and method statements supplied where the site requires them.
Safety
If a wall is dangerous right now
A wall that has been hit by a vehicle, has started to lean or bulge, or is shedding bricks from height is not a job to wait for a quotation. Keep people and cars away from both sides of it, and call the emergency services if anyone is at risk. Our emergency builder service runs a 24-hour call-out for exactly this: propping the wall, taking down what is loose and securing the area, as far as conditions allow. The brickwork repair itself is then quoted in writing.
Your questions
Brick repair FAQs: Flintshire & Deeside
Can you match Buckley brick?
Often, with reclaimed bricks. The last Buckley brickworks has closed, so its bricks are no longer made, and a repair in an older Flintshire wall usually means finding reclaimed bricks of the right size and colour. We will say how good a match is likely before any are ordered.
Are the Building Regulations different in Flintshire?
Flintshire is in Wales, so work here comes under the Building Regulations as they apply in Wales, which are not always the same as England’s. Whether Building Regulations or Building Control involvement is required depends on the scope of work. We will explain the position for your proposed repair and, where agreed, coordinate the process with the relevant parties.
Can you repair impact damage to a unit on Deeside Industrial Park?
Yes. We repair walls, piers and door reveals that have been hit by forklifts, lorries and vans. Send photographs and the unit address and we will quote for taking down the damaged brickwork and rebuilding it. Where the damage has left the wall unsafe, start with the section headed “If a wall is dangerous right now”.
Do you cover Mold, Flint and Holywell as well as Deeside?
Yes — the whole county, from Saltney and Broughton on the Chester side to Flint, Holywell and the villages towards the coast, and inland to Mold, Hope and Caergwrle.
How much does brick repair cost in Flintshire?
Mostly it comes down to the amount of brickwork, the access — ground level or scaffold — and whether a corner or pier has to be taken down. Hard local brick usually means reclaimed bricks have to be found, which is part of the price. Most jobs we can price from photographs — send yours on WhatsApp or by email and we’ll come back with a written quotation.
Written and reviewed by Michael Quirk, Director.
Cost
What affects the cost of a brick repair
No two brick repairs cost the same, and a figure published here would be wrong for most of the people reading it. What moves the price is how many bricks have to come out and where they are — at ground level or off a scaffold; how hard the brick is to match, and whether reclaimed bricks have to be found; whether a section has to be taken down and rebuilt; whether the cause has to be put right at the same time; and how much making-good the job leaves behind. No prices are published here because no two walls are the same; the written quotation is the price.
Request a quotation
Tell us what needs repairing and attach a few photographs — one of the whole wall and one close up.
How it works
Send us a photo, we’ll take it from there
You don’t need to describe the problem down the phone. A photo tells us most of what we need.
- 1WhatsApp or email us photos.A couple of pictures of the problem and your postcode.
- 2We reply with what it looks like and what happens next.Where the photos show enough, that’s a price. If not, we’ll tell you what else we need.
- 3You get a written quotation.A clear scope of works, so you know what is included.
- 4We do the work and leave it clean.
Brick repair & brickwork — send us photographs
Worried about your brickwork? Send us a photo.
Send a photo of the damage on WhatsApp or by email, with your postcode, and we will tell you what we think it needs and what happens next. Office 01244 638219.
WhatsApp or email gets the quickest reply. We come back to you as soon as we can.