Mastic man in Hitchin

Mastic and sealant work in Hitchin

Hitchin has a remarkably well-kept historic town centre, and many of its homes are older than they first appear. Behind a Georgian front there is sometimes a timber frame, and behind a shopfront there is often a flat with a bathroom fitted into a very old space. Mr Mastic covers Hitchin from our base in Crawley, resealing baths, showers and kitchens and renewing mastic on windows, doors and external joints.

On older buildings, the wrong sealant can do more harm than good, while on newer ones the usual fault is sealant that was too thin to begin with. Either way, the old bead comes out in full and the new one suits the materials around it. If your shower keeps leaking at the corners, our leaking shower sealant guide shows the common causes.

Medieval plots, Georgian fronts and post-railway growth

The Hitchin Conservation Area covers about 83 hectares of the centre and contains 183 listed buildings, including the Grade I St Mary’s Church and The Priory. Around the Market Place, Sun Street and Bucklersbury, buildings stand on the line of medieval burgage plots, with continuous frontages straight onto the pavement. Some are timber framed, such as The Biggin and the 15th-century west range at 8 to 12 Market Place, while others, like the 18th-century houses on Portmill Lane, are red brick.

The railway reached Hitchin in the mid-19th century and the town grew around it, adding streets of later Victorian and Edwardian houses. The 20th century brought council housing, including the 1920s homes on St Mary’s Square, three-storey 1970s blocks around Hollow Lane and Queen Street, and estates across the wards of Bearton, Highbury, Oughton, Priory and Walsworth.

For sealant, that range means very different jobs. Old timber-framed and brick buildings move with the seasons, so external joints need a flexible product that will not trap moisture against old material. In terraced and semi-detached family homes, it is mostly bath, shower and kitchen sealant that has gone mouldy or shrunk after years of use.

What we do in Hitchin

• Bathroom & kitchen resealing: Every joint in the bathroom and kitchen, from the bath edge to the worktop, stripped back and resealed with anti-fungal silicone.
• Window & door mastic: Frame perimeters inside and out resealed with flexible, colour-matched sealant, with backing rod where the gap is deep.
• Commercial & hotel sealant: Sealant programmes for offices, hotels, care settings and schools, with early or late working where it helps.
• Remedial sealant & repairs: Second opinions on sealant that keeps failing: we strip it out, check for movement or leaks and reseal it properly.
• Fire-rated sealant: Fire-rated sealant for service penetrations and frame gaps where it has been specified, applied to the tested details.
• External & façade joints: Split or perished joints in walls and cladding replaced with exterior sealant designed to stretch with the building.
• New-build mastic & snagging: New-build bathrooms, kitchens and frames resealed where the original sealant has cracked as the house settles.
• Floor & skirting joints: Skirting-to-floor gaps, tiled floor movement joints and concrete floor joints sealed with the right product.
• Regrouting: Crumbling grout in showers and wet areas raked out and refilled, so water stays out of the wall behind.
• Glazing & conservatory sealant: Conservatory, rooflight, glass panel and shower screen joints resealed with glazing silicone.
• Gutter, fascia & soffit sealing: Dripping gutter joints and end caps, and gaps at fascias and soffits, sealed with weatherproof exterior sealant.
• Sand mastic for sash & case windows: Traditional burnt sand mastic renewed around sash and case windows and doors in stone and brick.

Choosing a mastic man in Hitchin

Older towns like Hitchin reward patience, and that is the way we work. We have been in the sealant trade for more than 20 years, are fully insured and ARBOMaster approved, and use Arbo and Everbuild sealants chosen for each surface. Over 2,847 projects and a 4.9-star Google rating from more than 180 five-star reviews back that up. You will see a clear quote before we start, and every finished job comes with a one-year guarantee. We travel from our base in Crawley.

Places we pass in Hitchin

The nearest station to the town centre is Hitchin station. Well-known places nearby include North Hertfordshire Museum (less than half a mile west) and Wymondley Castle (1.7 miles east). Closer in, we work on homes, rented flats and businesses near Highbury Infant School and Nursery, Hitchin Girls' School, Kingshott School and Church of the Holy Saviour. For open space, Purwell Ninesprings and Markham's Hill are close by.