Randall Brickwork

11/02/2025

This was some alterations that I did on a lovely red brick Victorian property with lime mortar. The opening was cut out on one side
and a stone lintel was inserted , the brickwork either side toothed out and using cut out original bricks rebuilt. The back of the house was supported with acros and using existing bricks that were removed a bigger opening was formed using 3 new stone lintels to cladded the steel used behind. I enjoyed doing this job, initially a little daunting as I was doing for a developer
and was on my own . There were 2 guys running the job a Polish and a guy from New Zealand, they were both kind to me .

07/02/2025

This huge buttressing pier was one of 2 on a wonderfull listed farmhouse , parts of which date to the 17th Century. This pier was added for strength , normaly after there are movement problems. At some point in history the bricks maybe became too weathered and so were cladded with slate.
I removed the slate, rebuilt what was needed
and finally repointed everything with lime mortar . As with many jobs with lime, your hands can take a battering 🙂

05/02/2025

Hi , these steps were at a lovely listed farmhouse , they definitely had seen better days , using many of the same bricks i managed to once again breathe some life back into them. please feel free to view and like my web page Randall Brickwork. Thankyou Barrie.

30/01/2025

I got a call to do some work on a fireplace today , not a big job, but an important one as fireplace smoke was getting in behind the fireplace brick front and coming into the room. Many places were devoid of mortar allowing this to happen and the back of fireplace had lots of bits missing. The back i made good in order to encourage the smoke up the chimney and not hang around 🙂

28/01/2025

This was a wall that I repaired in the lovely village of Quainton in 2017, the wall dates to the Victorian period , but the cottage is 18th Century. I have worked many times in Quainton in the past esp at a amazing big listed 17th cottage across the road from this wall. Quainton is where I always used to fly Brandie. This was a usual much cutting and piecing up job, I did as usual enjoy building it. It was all done in lime mortar 🙂

25/01/2025

This was a boundary wall that I worked on some time ago. In many places the bricks had deteriorated a lot. So in the worst places I cut out sections and removed the existing damaged bricks , then turned them around and relaid them. They were mostly undamaged on the side facing inwards. It just showed how bright this wall was when first built. It's nice to bring bits back to their
former glory. The work was all done in lime mortar. Please feel free to contact me if you have any enquiries. Thankyou Barrie

23/01/2025

Some graffiti from a job in it's earlier stage , now completed on a country estate last year, photos will be released soon 🙂 &piers &bordercollies

23/01/2025

A recent big job graffiti, the photos soon to be released as is now finished from a huge sunken rose garden on a country estate

21/01/2025

I definitely do not just do my job for the money , you would only have to check my bank account to realize that 😄. For me to do a job that is appreciated, really does make me feel good and it makes it so much more worthwhile. Below are 3 recent reviews I did for 3 lovely customers.

19/01/2025

16/01/2025

Just finished extending Sherry, my partners driveway , so that she can park easier to the front of her house. Because her driveway is so narrow , it was difficult for her and next doors car to park alongside . So I removed her front wall , which had a mix of brick pavia and planting behind. This was all much
higher than the pavement, requiring a lot of digging out. After putting a new base in ,
I concreted new footings and using reclaimed pavia , bedded in new edgings. Using existing concrete edgings to seperate next doors . Finally we used cotswold flat shingle to finish and made good where new driveway edging met existing. 🙂

14/04/2024

After digging out and concreting the footings for the steps and stone pier and walls , the building began. I had put in timber profiles all around the big , soon to be resurrected sunken Rose garden. The lines being parallel to the big boundary wall and steps even though they are 70ft apart and all to be in line with the centre of doorway. After lines were strung out, I plumbed these lines down onto footings in mortar , to set out steps and piers , so that they will exactly match what was before and each other. These steps on this far side being completely new. Normaly I would build all the stone piers and walls first , but when the lime stone arrived , I realised 85% had no dressed ends on , which is what is needed as most of the work has pier corners, meaning smooth ends of stone are useless . I sorted everything from different sizes that could possibly used for under new steps which requires no good ends. Building the steps first is definitely not what I would normally do. After all this time, the stone for walls is arriving on Monday , hopefully correctthis time . The steps needed to rise the same and finish as part of a new path on the far side and part of existing patio on the near doorway side . this patio will be lifted later and relaid. The Lovely York stone
paving I lifted from paving in front of the stone garden house. Trying to find enough with same thickness edges undamaged for step fronts being really difficult. They were really heavy and bedded in mud. I eventually found enough
and proceeded. I have put a timber post in front of steps with marks on it for heights of steps and height of stone pier courses to follow. The piers tops need to work to be the same height above both the bottom and top steps on all piers. After re ordering stone again to have good ends for piers I have been told at last minute they will not be in 630mm lengths , which is what I needed for bond of piers , but in 200 and 300 mm lengths ! , I waited a month to hear this. I will now on Monday have to work a way of still bonding the piers with shorter lengths. Still much to do when the pier and wall stones stones arrive , but I'm looking forward to finishing this really interesting lime mortar job . The Rise garden will look amazing I'm sure when planted and paths laid out. I will most likely do a new circular feature also 🙂

24/12/2023

The 3rd Gable , I have never had to intersect 2 gables before. As I was unsure exactly what would be visable , I made sure where they joined in a valley was all face work, quite a bit of cutting ! 🙂

24/12/2023

Earlier in the year I built 3 brick gable corbels , this was 2 of them. I probably did about 75% of the stonework also. The extension was onto a Earlierwonderful Victorian brick farmhouse. Building the brick corbels which corbelled out each time required a lot of setting out and propping up temporarily. At the base you can see how I temporarily put in bricks to enable the work to be built up gables. The bottoms being pieced in after. Many battens were used to give different lines to ensure Brickwork went up and over gables harmoniously, either the tops being mitred . The air type bricks in the stone gables are actually Bee bricks built in for Bees 🙂

23/12/2023

I just recently finished repointing some lovely steps on a wonderful old Manor house. The weather was not ideal , but I managed to make them look a lot neater and they should now be more weather resistant. I'm looking forward to working there again one day , I really enjoyed doing it and talking to the nice lady that Iives there. 🙂

23/12/2023

Last week I built a stone planter around a tree to replace a wooden one. The stone , sand and everything were soaking wet and it rained a lot making it far more challenging. Because it was so wet I had to rake out all the mortar on the top course and replace with dryer to get a nice finish. The lower work having to be pointed the next day when it dried. I set the circle with a batten cut to length off the tree higher up where it was more regular and then plumbed down onto mortar
Spread onto the concrete below. The marks to delinate the circle being put into the wet mortar. Not a perfect way to mark a circle, but the tree trunk prevented putting in a pin and dropping a pre drilled batten with a pointed end over , the best way to get a perfect circle.
The stones were cut to enable them to be laid nicely to the curve without incurring big cross joints . Each course was set dry first the laid .The best way to lay them accurately I find is to lay evey fourth one all the way round in harmony level wise then go back and fill in stones behind.
The wonderful owl was carved out of the tree.
After Christmas I will build 2 more, 🙂

17/06/2023

Just finished a diagonal herringbone path for Sherry. Because her garden is narrow it seems perfect. She has lots of shrubs etc and the choice of path , which was hers , was a great idea. A 2 brick herringbone serpentine path with no edging may seem easy to do. Believe me it really is not , your eye is entirely caught by the shape and having no edging makes laying it quite a job. The pattern leads you to her office and Brandies aviary , if it was going across a wider path it would be easier , but I like the gentle way it meanders with no fixed edging for the grass and wild flowers to later join. First I put down a concrete base which enabled me to set everything dry , trying to serpentine the pattern and not end up with massive joints between bricks was the aim. So with a combination of shaing a little off some bricks on the sharper bits , opening joints slightly enabled me to swing one way and then the next. It rolls down and up with the slopes giving it added character . Finally the path was 2/3rds pointed with a mix of 70% sharp sand and 30% soft mortar mix , just damp so it could be compacted. Later the final part filled joints to the top, it was the finished with a soft brush to reveal the stone in the mortar . This I think is much more interesting to reveal the stone and inclusions in the sand as apposed to a smooth joint which can be a little bland . The bricks are lovely Victorian red reclaims which compliment Sherrys Victorian cottage 🙂

24/05/2023

Just finished a retaining wall on a lovely old Cottage garden, the cottage dates back to the 17th century. It turned out to be a bit of an epic job, in the end I worked late Friday , Sat and Sun to finish. Originally there were 3 rows of sleepers that I had to remove. The wall was to be 26 metres in length. Being a facing brick on the front with blockwork behind. The top finished with a nice paving slab as a coping , so its weather's and provides a seat ! . There were so many service pipes in the ground making it far more difficult. This meant having to use 10 different concrete lintels and having to stop start shuttering up either side of pipes.
They sometimes crossed the footing diagonally making lintelling harder. Though not high , the wall still required drainage pipes, expansion joints and had 5 different steps incorporated to match different heights . So lots of setting out. All was hand dug by me as usual 😃. The garden is a fantastic little oasis of hidden paths and lovely plants , now it can all be sorted around the new wall . The lady I worked for could not of been a nicer lady , though very busy herself , she looked after me.
We even shared a fascination of history and I put aside any little bits I found digging. We buried a little time capsule, a plastic bag under
the coping stone 🙂 .The colored beads that I set into the joint , were for her son, he used to play with them in the garden when young and they are everywhere, so now a few can be seen through the kitchen door forever 🙂