Bricklayers · Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire
Pennant & Lyle lay brick the slow way: set out on a gauge rod, bedded in lime or sand-and-cement to suit the job, and struck by hand while the mortar is still talking. Extensions, garden walls, chimneys and repointing.
75 mmCourse pitch, checked on the gauge rod every fourth course.
One crewThe same two bricklayers from footing to coping.
MatchedFacing bricks sourced to the house, not “near enough”.
What we build
Course 0801 / 04
Cavity walls from footing to eaves, with facing brick matched to the house. We work to your architect’s drawings and say early if a detail will not build.
Course 2202 / 04
Flemish and English bond in lime mortar, with piers, copings and gate openings. Built to stand through frost, not to look good for a season.
Course 3703 / 04
Raked out by hand, never with a grinder wheel, then repointed in a lime that suits the brick. Struck to match the original profile.
How we repointCourse 5104 / 04
Stack rebuilds, gauged arches, soldier courses and plinths. The slow work, done at the right pace and photographed before we start so it goes back as it came down.
The method
Every course follows the same four beats. Watch the wall behind: the wet bed goes down, the brick follows, the joint is struck a storey behind.
Beat one
Gauge rod marked at 75 mm. Corners racked up first, the line pulled tight between them. Everything else follows the line.
Beat two
A ten-millimetre bed of mortar, furrowed with the trowel edge so the brick seats evenly and the joint stays full.
Beat three
Butter the end, press home, tap to the line. Excess mortar goes back on the board, not down the face of the wall.
Beat four
When the mortar is thumb-hard, joints are struck and brushed. Pointing runs about a storey behind the laying, so the face is finished while it is still fresh.
Joint profilesCross-sections
The profile decides how a wall sheds water and how it looks in raking light. We match whatever the house already wears.
Recent work
BoxmoorGarden wall
Fourteen metres of 1.8 m wall in London stock with vitrified headers worked into a diamond lattice, bedded in lime.
GadebridgeChimney
Every brick numbered, cleaned and re-laid above the roofline in the order it came off. New pots, new flaunching, same silhouette.
AdeyfieldExtension
Rear extension in a cavity wall, faced in reclaimed and new stock bricks blended course by course so the join is hard to find.
Course 64Capping off
Tell us what needs building or mending. We will visit, measure, and put a price in writing.