smurf355
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- ledgu10mr16
Hi, I am new to the forum. I have not owned or done any work on a "pre cavity walls" property before we bought our current house. We have recently started work on our house - a detached Georgian (circa 200 years old - not listed or conservation area) brick built house with basement that needs some updating and we are making some alterations/additions to the property. We have broken up the concrete paths around the house perimeter and made some excavations for new drainage and footing for a new extension to replace a previous extension that was ugly and off centre. Some of the mortar joints/pointing below ground, that we exposed, are quite washed away and also brickwork quite wet in these areas - the old drainage that I think caused this through leakage/seepage into the soil below the concrete paths has now been replaced but the brickwork needs repointing now. This will all be below ground level - after repointing these areas, we will backfill against these external walls. Original mortar joints were obviously lime mortar. In an ideal world I would get it repointed with lime mortar but I wonder if it's necessary below ground as A) it won't be seen, B) Are reasons for using lime mortar when repointing old solid walls actually redundant if the brickwork is below ground?
My reluctance to repoint with lime mortar is because I spoke to a couple of firms locally that specialise in lime mortar pointing and they are booked up until next summer and I need to get it done and get these excavations backfilled so we can progress the works. If we were to tackle the pointing ourselves now (with lime mortar - 2 parts sharp sand, 1 part building sand, NHL5 lime), I am told I would need to leave it 2 months to cure sufficiently anyway before backfilling against it. Again this will be a major hold-up to the works as this below ground repointing was not something we anticipated discovering at all. Can we just do this repointing with cement mortar , leave it to go off for a few days and backfill?
Similarly, we are putting in some load bearing steels into an external wall to make a wider opening - it will actually be 3 steels sandwiched together to support the 350mm thick solid brick wall above. As this is is above ground at first floor joist level, I assumed we would need to use lime mortar when bedding the padstones, stitching bricks back in and repointing etc. However, again regarding the amount of time I am told it takes for lime mortar to go off - how do I manage this curing time when the brickwork above the steel will need to be supported with acros and strong boys inside and outside? Do you install acros and strong boys, remove the necessary bricks, do the bedding of padstones with lime mortar and leave for several weeks for the mortar to cure? Then insert the steels, reinstate the face brickwork with lime mortar and leave the acros and strong boys in place for another month or two while this mortar goes off before removing the acros and strong boys and finally repointing the whole area around where steels were inserted? Is it necessarily as time swallowing (waiting time/curing time) as I am thinking it will be? If so, I guess I will be buying acros and strong boys, rather than hiring them?
Is lime mortar as much the hinderance to speedy progress I am led to believe it is? Also conscious of weather getting colder and wetter now.
My reluctance to repoint with lime mortar is because I spoke to a couple of firms locally that specialise in lime mortar pointing and they are booked up until next summer and I need to get it done and get these excavations backfilled so we can progress the works. If we were to tackle the pointing ourselves now (with lime mortar - 2 parts sharp sand, 1 part building sand, NHL5 lime), I am told I would need to leave it 2 months to cure sufficiently anyway before backfilling against it. Again this will be a major hold-up to the works as this below ground repointing was not something we anticipated discovering at all. Can we just do this repointing with cement mortar , leave it to go off for a few days and backfill?
Similarly, we are putting in some load bearing steels into an external wall to make a wider opening - it will actually be 3 steels sandwiched together to support the 350mm thick solid brick wall above. As this is is above ground at first floor joist level, I assumed we would need to use lime mortar when bedding the padstones, stitching bricks back in and repointing etc. However, again regarding the amount of time I am told it takes for lime mortar to go off - how do I manage this curing time when the brickwork above the steel will need to be supported with acros and strong boys inside and outside? Do you install acros and strong boys, remove the necessary bricks, do the bedding of padstones with lime mortar and leave for several weeks for the mortar to cure? Then insert the steels, reinstate the face brickwork with lime mortar and leave the acros and strong boys in place for another month or two while this mortar goes off before removing the acros and strong boys and finally repointing the whole area around where steels were inserted? Is it necessarily as time swallowing (waiting time/curing time) as I am thinking it will be? If so, I guess I will be buying acros and strong boys, rather than hiring them?
Is lime mortar as much the hinderance to speedy progress I am led to believe it is? Also conscious of weather getting colder and wetter now.
