Doncaster & South Yorkshire
Brickwork · Doncaster & South Yorkshire
Structural and facing brickwork built by a directly employed Doncaster team with 20 years behind the trowel: set out accurately on day one so you are not paying twice, and covered by a 2-year workmanship guarantee when we leave.
20 years' experience · fully insured · every project backed by a 2-year workmanship guarantee
20 years
Trading experience
Team of 11
Directly employed
£2m / £10m
Public & employers' liability
2-year guarantee
10-year warranty on request
CSCS · NVQ 6
SSSTS & NHBC Masterclass
Overview
Brickwork is the part of a building everybody sees and nobody can quietly correct later. A wall that is out of plumb, a perp line that wanders, or mortar mixed inconsistently between lifts stays visible for the life of the property. Surefoot lays structural and facing brickwork across Doncaster and South Yorkshire to a standard that survives close inspection from a homeowner, a site manager and a warranty inspector alike.
Load-bearing and non-load-bearing brickwork: cavity walls, inner blockwork skins, outer facing skins, piers, reveals, soldier courses, arches, corbels, cills, chimney stacks and rebuilds. We set out from datum, run gauge rods, keep courses level between corners and finish joints consistently so the elevation reads as one piece of work rather than three days stitched together.
Homeowners adding an extension, garage or porch; property owners repairing storm damage, bulging walls or failed lintels; and builders and developers who need a reliable subcontract gang who turn up, hit programme and leave a clean scaffold. A good share of our work is repeat trade work, which is the clearest measure of whether a bricklayer is worth booking again.
New extensions and outbuildings, structural alterations where a wall is opened up or rebuilt, replacing failed or spalled brickwork, matching brickwork on an older property, boundary and garden walls, and remedial work where previous brickwork has cracked, moved or been laid with the wrong mortar mix.
Bricklaying looks repetitive and is not. Mortar strength must suit the brick: a mortar harder than the brick moves the damage into the brick face. Cavity trays, weep holes, wall ties at the right centres and correct DPC detailing are what keep water out of a room five years from now. Those details are invisible once the wall is up, which is precisely why the accreditation and the guarantee behind the person laying it matter.
What it costs to get wrong
Brickwork faults rarely announce themselves on completion day. They surface in the second winter, when the cost of putting them right is several times the saving that caused them.
Mortar snots bridging the cavity, a missing cavity tray over an opening, or a DPC lapped the wrong way lets water track to the inside skin. The fix is not a coat of paint, it is taking the outer skin down and rebuilding it, plus replastering the room inside.
Missing movement joints on long runs, wall ties at the wrong centres, or brickwork built off inadequate footings produce stepped cracking through the perp joints. Once it moves, it keeps moving, and a mortgage valuation or homebuyer's survey will find it.
Colour banding from unmixed packs, inconsistent joint profiles, gauge that drifts between corners and staining from careless mortar handling. None of it is structural and all of it devalues the elevation, because a bad face brick job is the first thing a buyer notices.
Choosing on day rate rather than on setting out; letting a general builder's labourer 'help out' on the facing skin; laying in frost without protection; and skipping a proper site visit so ground levels and access are discovered on the first morning, which is when programmes and prices start slipping.
Our process
Call or send the drawings and photographs. We establish brick type, quantities, access, scaffold requirements and whether the work is structural before anybody prices it.
We look at levels, existing brick courses to be matched, ground conditions and access in person. Setting out decisions made here are what keep the whole build square.
A price built around your actual scope, not a rate card, with the work described clearly so you know what is and is not included.
Gauge rods, profiles and levels checked as we go, correct mortar mix maintained across lifts, cavities kept clean, ties and trays installed to detail, site left tidy each day.
We walk the finished elevation with you before we leave, sign it off together, and back it with a 2-year workmanship guarantee, with a 10-year warranty available on request.
What you get
Accurate setting out and consistent gauge means no rebuilding a course, no chasing a wall back into plumb, and no argument with the next trade about tolerances.
Cavity trays, weeps, ties and DPC installed as designed, so water leaves the wall where it should instead of appearing on your plaster.
£2,000,000 public liability and £10,000,000 employers' liability, so a domestic extension carries the same protection as a main contractor's site.
CSCS carded, SSSTS site supervisor trained, NVQ Level 6 and NHBC Masterclass: the credentials main contractors ask for, held as standard.
Because we also do the groundworks and the landscaping, the footings, the brickwork and the finished ground levels are set out by the same people.
A 2-year workmanship guarantee on every project, with a 10-year warranty available on request, so the standard is not just a promise on a quote.
In detail
Brickwork is a wide trade and the detail changes with the brick, the mortar, the exposure and the age of the building. This is the range we work across for clients in Doncaster, Sheffield, Rotherham, Barnsley and the surrounding towns.
Wirecut and stock facing bricks, reclaimed and handmade bricks for period matching, engineering bricks below DPC and in exposed positions, dense concrete blocks for load-bearing inner skins, and lightweight thermal blocks where the wall build-up requires them. Brick selection is matched to the existing elevation for colour, texture and size where we are extending an older property.
Mortar mixed to suit the brick and the exposure rather than to one habitual recipe, with lime mixes where soft or historic brickwork demands a weaker, more forgiving joint. Joint finishes include bucket handle, weather struck, flush and recessed, kept consistent across the whole elevation.
Stretcher bond as standard on cavity work, plus Flemish, English and English garden wall bond for solid and feature walling. Soldier courses, brick-on-edge copings, plinth and bullnose specials, corbelled detailing, brick arches and cut reveals.
Cavity walls with insulation and stainless ties, padstones and lintel bearings, piers and pilasters, chimney stack rebuilds and repointing, opening up and closing down existing walls, and rebuilding sections of failed or storm-damaged brickwork.
Cutting out and replacing spalled or frost-damaged bricks, repointing where the original mortar has eroded, crack stitching and rebuilding where movement has occurred, and matching brickwork so a repair does not advertise itself.
On domestic work the priorities are the finished face, protecting the rest of your home and keeping the site liveable. On commercial and developer work the priorities shift to programme, sequencing with other trades, RAMS, inductions and inspection sign-offs. Our accreditation set, CSCS, SSSTS, NVQ Level 6 and NHBC Masterclass, means we work under either regime without a change of standard.
£2,000,000 public liability and £10,000,000 employers' liability cover, with a 2-year workmanship guarantee on every project and a 10-year warranty available on request.
Questions
Anything not covered here, call Michael on +44 7856 247499 and ask.
Related work
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View serviceWe cover Doncaster and the surrounding towns, see the full list of areas we work in, browse all Surefoot services, or send your project details for a tailored price.
Send the drawings or a few photographs and we will arrange a site visit, then come back with a written price built around your project: fully insured, accredited and guaranteed for two years.
Fully insured · CSCS, SSSTS, NVQ Level 6 & NHBC Masterclass · 2-year workmanship guarantee