Batten over two uneven bricks

[urowho]

I wonder if anyone can help. I've got a 1750 house that has a newer extension on the back. Typically the Edwardian/late Victorian extension has worse brickwork than the rest of the house. There's a small wall which is 80% window where the ivy had grown through and pushed the plaster off the wall. The previous owners had simply put some wood fibre board over the top with two layers of traditional plaster healing woodchip.

Anyway, I've removed all of the dead lime plaster and gypsum on the other side. The wall has been damp in the past and I'd like this room, just room next door to it lath and plastered.

So today I bought some 25x38 battens and already have plenty of plaster and laths. I then cleared off the existing plaster and spotted a problem.

The issue is that two bricks on the gypsum side stick wildly out by 2cm compared with the rest in the wall. I wonder if the originals were damaged and the previous owners have just put in whatever they could find.

Any suggestions? angle grinder and then SDS chisel a 25mm channel in the brick? Obviously I've not got enough depth in the batten to trim it. Thicker battens would mean that the window would sit at the wrong height in the wall and I'd lose the lovely original trim.

Thanks in advance.

 

[MikeG]

Without seeing it, it's hard to give advice. However, I would certainly consider taking the bricks out and relaying them. Re-locating the battens might be an easier fix, though.

 

[Flyfisher]

If it’s just two bricks then I think I’d also be thinking about reaching for the angle grinder and cutting them back as necessary. I certainly wouldn’t consider that using thicker battens to be a proportionate solution, especially because of the window issues that would arise, as you’ve already pointed out.

Just one thought though. If the battens are 25mm off the wall and the two bricks in question stick out by 20mm then that only leaves 5mm to form ‘nibs’ between the paths when plastering, which might possibly mean a weak spot in front of the bricks. Might not be a problem in the short term but probably not ideal. I’d be inclined to cut the whole brick back to the wall level. It’s only two of them.

Having said all that, MikeG’s suggestion of relaying the offending bricks would be the ideal solution, especially if they are already a little loose from being pushed out of place by the ivy.

 

[Flyfisher]

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