Brickwork · Cambridge & the Fens
Brickwork in Cambridge:Laid Straight.Built to Stay.
Garden walls, repointing, brick repairs and extension brickwork, built by one firm at one fixed price, with bricks matched to your existing masonry and the finished work backed by our workmanship guarantee.
Free site visits across Cambridgeshire · £5m public liability cover · 5.0 on Google
Brick Matching Blended with your existing masonry
Fixed-Price Quotes No extras, no surprises
£5m Public Liability Insured on every job
Workmanship Guarantee On every job we complete
5.0 on Google 8 verified five-star reviews
01The Service
What Our Brickwork Service Covers
Structural and decorative brickwork across Cambridge and the Fens: garden walls, boundary walls, pillars and piers, repointing of tired mortar, brick repairs and replacements, and the brickwork side of our extensions. Whether it's a new wall from the footings up or a careful repair to a period property, the job is quoted at one fixed price after a free site visit.
Our brickwork clients are homeowners restoring crumbling garden walls, dealing with blown or spalled bricks, or extending and wanting the new masonry to sit naturally next to the old. Around Cambridge, matching matters: the city's stock ranges from Victorian reds to pale gault bricks, and a poor match shouts from the kerb.
You need a bricklayer when mortar is recessed or falling out, when bricks are cracked or spalling, when a wall is leaning or bulging, or when you're building anything new in brick. Left alone, failing mortar lets water into the wall, and water inside a wall is how small repairs become rebuilds.
Because CV Carpentry & Construction also builds extensions, our brickwork benefits from a builder's eye for structure: footings sized properly, walls tied in correctly, and copings and details finished to keep water out. Every job is covered by £5m public liability insurance and our workmanship guarantee.
02Why It Matters
What Failing Brickwork Costs You
Mortar is the sacrificial part of a wall, it's designed to weather before the bricks do. When it recesses and crumbles, rain soaks into the wall instead of running off it. In a British winter that moisture freezes, expands, and starts blowing the faces off the bricks themselves. A repointing job becomes a brick-replacement job; a brick-replacement job becomes a partial rebuild.
Leaning or bulging walls are the other slow-motion problem. A garden wall that has started to move rarely stops on its own, and when it finally goes, it can go suddenly. Rebuilding early, from proper footings, costs a fraction of an emergency demolition and rebuild after a collapse.
And poor repairs are nearly as bad as none. Hard cement mortar smeared over soft period brickwork traps moisture and accelerates decay; mismatched bricks devalue the look of the whole house. Doing it once, properly, with the right materials, is the cheapest version of the job.
Common Mistakes Homeowners Make
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01
Ignoring recessed mortar because 'it's only cosmetic': it's the wall's weatherproofing, and it fails quietly before it fails expensively.
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02
Accepting any old brick for a repair, a poor match is visible from the street for the life of the house.
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03
Repointing period brickwork with hard modern cement, the bricks, not the mortar, then become the sacrificial layer.
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04
Building a garden wall on inadequate footings, it will lean, crack or fall; it's a question of when, not if.
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05
Taking a vague estimate instead of a fixed price, brickwork is easy to scope properly after a site visit, so it should be.
03How It Works
How Your Brickwork Job Runs
01
Free Site Visit
Charlie visits, inspects the wall or the area, assesses the cause of any failure, not just the symptoms, and talks through the options. It costs nothing and obliges you to nothing.
02
Fixed-Price Quote
One clear, fixed price for the whole job, with materials accounted for. For repairs, we confirm the brick and mortar match approach up front. No extras.
03
Preparation & Footings
New walls start from properly sized footings; repairs start with careful cutting-out of failed mortar and bricks, protecting the surrounding masonry as we go.
04
The Build or Repair
Brickwork laid level, plumb and to gauge, with mortar suited to the age of the property, joints finished correctly, and the site kept tidy throughout.
05
Final Check & Guarantee
The finished work is walked through with you and the site left clean. Your brickwork is covered by our workmanship guarantee, terms vary by job type, so ask when we quote.
04Why CV Carpentry
What You Get With CV Carpentry
Brickwork is permanent. Here's how we make sure it's permanently right.
Matched to Your Home
Bricks sourced to blend with your existing masonry and mortar suited to the property's age: repairs that don't announce themselves.
Built From Proper Footings
New walls and pillars start below ground, with footings sized for the wall they carry, the part you never see is the part that decides everything.
One Fixed Price
Quoted after a free site visit and honoured to the end. The price we quote is the price you pay.
Structural Understanding
As a firm that builds extensions, we understand how walls carry loads and tie into structures, not just how they look.
Tidy, Respectful Working
Brickwork is messy work done tidily: paving protected, mortar smears cleaned, and the site left properly at the end of each day.
Guaranteed & Insured
£5m public liability cover while we work, and our workmanship guarantee on the finished job.
05In Detail
Our Brickwork Services in Detail
The main types of brickwork we carry out across Cambridge and the Fens, and how each is done properly.
Repointing
Failed mortar is raked out to a proper depth, never smeared over, and repointed with a mortar suited to the wall. On period properties that often means a softer mix than modern cement, so the mortar remains the sacrificial layer it's designed to be.
Done properly, repointing restores the wall's weatherproofing and its appearance in one job, and it adds decades to the masonry's life.
Garden & Boundary Walls
New garden walls, boundary walls, raised beds and planters, built from properly sized footings with the right piers and coping details to keep water out of the wall from the top.
We'll advise honestly on height, thickness and pier spacing at the site visit, a wall built right the first time never needs propping up later.
Brick Repairs & Matching
Spalled, cracked or damaged bricks cut out and replaced individually, with replacements sourced to match the existing masonry as closely as possible, colour, texture and size all matter on a visible elevation.
Where an exact match doesn't exist, we'll show you the closest options before any work starts, so there are no surprises on the wall.
Brickwork for Extensions
The masonry side of our extension work: new walls tied into existing ones correctly, openings formed with proper lintels, and bricks matched so the addition looks like part of the original house.
If you're planning an extension, see our extensions service for how the whole project runs from footings to finish.
Questions
Brickwork Questions, Answered Straight
Get Started
Get Brickwork Built to Stay
Free site visit, one fixed price, matched materials and a workmanship guarantee on the finished job. Call Charlie directly, or send the details and we'll come to you.
Free site visit & fixed-price quote
£5m public liability cover
Workmanship guarantee