K Barnard Brickwork

The work was itty bitty: pointing, reinforcing, repairing cracked sills. Issues were pointed out to me that I hadn’t noticed before. My house is late Victorian so obviously has some wear and tear. Keith and Ben spotted where the window sills had weaknesses which would contribute to or be the cause of interior dampness. Their remedies, which included introducing small steel reinforcing bars deep in the sills, were creative, unexpected and a great idea. They took great care to match the colour of pointing and brickwork to my requirements. And they did a couple of extras, all within timescale and budget. And they tidied up each day. All in all a very satisfied customer.

We moved into the new house in Brixton in late June. We realised we had problems with a patch of damp affecting the front wall of our living room. The damp specialist we instructed indicated that we need to remove a large proportion of the plaster in that room, re-point external brickwork and fix defective guttering, and then re-plaster. We wanted the side gate replaced too. Of all of the builders we spoke to Keith and Ben (Keith’s son in law) were the most straightforward, they understood precisely what we needed to have done, and promptly sent a quote. The quote was very reasonable and having met Keith and Ben I felt confident that the work would be done to the requisite standard. Keith’s team started the work on 20 October and finished on 26 October. The workmanship is excellent. Keith and his team were utterly lovely to deal with and extremely considerate. They were extremely friendly and very approachable. It was clear from discussions that Keith is very knowledgable about his trade and he is happy to explain what he is doing. I really cannot recommend these guys enough. We are already planning to get Keith and his team to deal with other works that need to be done to our house. It is difficult to find good and trustworthy builders. We feel confident that we have found them in K Barnard Brickwork. My only hesitation in recommending Keith is that if too many people realise just how good he is, he’ll get too busy. :- )

Keith, Ben and colleague arrived as agreed to repair a decorative external architrave that another large company had quoted a huge amount of money to repair. The team clearly have many skills from lots of years of experience and just got on with the job. They were prompt, tidy, friendly, and completed the job beautifully at a much more reasonable price. Truly a pleasure to employ.

Keith, Ben and the other two family members did a good job repairing our garden wall, which had lost much of top few layers and coping stones. It took them a few hours one day and the whole of the next. They were able to reuse many of the bricks and stones that had come off, which I appreciated, and finished it well. They also did good repair work on the roof parapet wall where rendering had come off. Cost was reasonable. They were reliable turning up to quote and start the work. Communication was generally good, and friendly. We had to wait quite a while until they quoted, and then until they could do the job when had a gap between larger jobs. But that was understood from the beginning, and I preferred that they were realistic about timing. They were generally quick at replying to emails about the quote and work.

K Barnard did really good work on the back of our house and garden. There was re-pointing and painting of walls, installation of a fence and trellises and work on paving stones. The communication was good throughout. The whole team seemed reliable and trustworthy.

100% satisfaction. Highly recommended. Professional advice on the job, detailed accurate contract, agreed price & invoicing, highly-skilled execution of all work, pleasant & co-operative attitude.

Just before Xmas 2020 my neighbour's car accidentally went into one of the 7 brick piers (posts) in my front garden wall. I collected a number of quotations from various local brick layers. All came in at around £950. But none were known or reputable. I got K Barnard off here. They provided a written quotation within a day. 5 weeks later they came and rebuilt the pier using the same old bricks. They meticulously cut the 60 or so bricks out of the knocked over pier and got rid of the concrete centre. It took around 9 hours to do the job. No break, all three working very hard. The pier restored and looking better than before it was knocked over. The quality of workmanship is top notch. The 3 guys are really good - no mess, they kept clear of the garden bushes, cleared up all the dust from cutting etc. Washed the road and path where they worked. They also made sure that the iron gate could be hung - all fitted and measured very nicely. I would definitely use K Barnard again. Great work, tidy, polite, quiet, job done with minimum of fuss. And they reused ALL the old bricks, so no waste at all. My neighbour paid up. In the end, K Barnard came in at £250 cheaper than the other 7 quotations, so his pain was not as bad as it could have been.

Keith and Ben stood out from the rest of the builders who came to quote for the work as it was obvious from the start that they are craftsmen who know their craft inside-out. We were not disappointed when the work began as Keith and Ben, joined by Gary and Justin worked like Trojans, fuelled by cups of coffee, biscuits and Pot Noodles! They were a real pleasure to have around - always polite, and careful if they had to come into the flat. They have an old-school approach to their work and obviously take pride in what they do - a rare quality these days. They completed the work on time and on budget and we are so glad that we chose them for the job. We were actually sad to see them go when they finished and have already recommended them to two neighbours who have asked for quotes.

Keith and Ben oversaw a big project at our property, re-instating a Victorian bay window which had been completely removed in the 60s. This involved rebuilding the bay from scratch to match the others on the street, commissioning stone masons to match exactly the designs of the period, replacing all windows to the front of the house and cleaning/repointing all brickwork. Also they completely renovated the front garden, building a new London stock brick wall with York stone coping stones, laid a victorian mosaic path, and put down reclaimed York stone flagstones. This was a huge project and we struggled to find people who had the skills and confidence to oversee everything. From the outset Ben and Keith made us feel that they could manage the project and that proved to be the case. The quality of their work is excellent and they were also a pleasure to have in the house, we missed them after they were gone to be honest. There may well be slicker and bigger contractors out there, but the personable way Ben and Keith handled us throughout the project was so valued and the end result looks absolutely great. All work was completed on agreed budget. We can't recommend them highly enough.

We contacted Keith and Ben after reading the reviews here and are very glad we did. We thought a lot of our terraced house needed repointing, but when they came to inspect they said most of it was in good condition and only needed patching. They also noticed that one of our gutters was too short, potentially damaging the brickwork. We also wanted repairs done to several cracked stone windowsills and to have our patio repointed. Gary and Sean did most of the work and did so meticulously, finishing it all in three days. We are delighted with the results, which included a new gutter and redoing some previous repair work that wasn't up to their high standards. Keith, Ben, Sean and Gary were all very pleasant to deal with, and as well as doing a great job of work, did a fantastic job clearing up afterwards.