Replacing a large area of damaged bricks

[Melz]

Does anyone have experience of trying to restore brickwork which is beyond the help of cleaning and re-pointing? We have an area of house wall which was formerly inside a conservatory and had been coated in cement render, plaster and wallpaper. Now we have taken the conservatory down we'd like to uncover the brick to match the rest of the rear elevation of the house. Attempts at getting the render off have been good in patches but large numbers of bricks (soft reds) have been scarred badly as the render was well and truly stuck to them. The rendered area is from ground level up to the bottom of the first floor windows and encompasses a door and two windows. We really don't want to consider re-rendering purely because we don't like the look of it.

We have some original bricks we've salvaged from taking out a bay window and demolishing a shed. Could we dig out the damaged bricks and replace them, or could we dig out the damaged bricks and turn them back to front so that the damaged side is on the inside? I've also heard of brick veneers but don't really know how these are used. Any helpful suggestions?

 

[Feltwell]

You have my sympathy - it's horrible when previous owners have done that.

Your ideas are all perfectly valid. Turning bricks round - can sometimes be done. Some bricks have 1 good header & stretcher face only, some are good all round. I have done this with door surrounds, to "replace" damaged bricks - of course they are not as weathered as the surrounding bricks, but give them a few years and they blend.

Taking damaged bricks out without damaging them further - yes, can be done, it's a fiddly job and you will have a proportion that you do have to throw away.

I wouldn't bother with veneers - I'd start off looking at local salvage yards if you need more bricks.

If you have solid walls (which if the house is pre-1920 they probably will be) then do use lime rather than cement for your mortar - and if you get a bricklayer in to do the work, find one who is hapy to work with a lime mortar without cement rather than a mix of lime & cement - which many will want to use. There are 1001 threads about this on here if you search!

Finally re-pointing the whole elevation - again with a lime mortar - can make your "new" area blend in much better.

 

[AMc]

I would consult a lime experienced bricklayer about the likely wastage and then source a good supply of reclaimed bricks to begin with, you can always sell the spares back to a reclaim yard or put them on Salvo.

My experience with reslating a roof was painful because I wasn't adequately prepared. I would assume quite a large proportion of those soft reds won't be usable as the 'best face' will normally have been laid outwards in the first place. Have an adequate supply of reclaimed standing by - guessing 1/3 of the bricks as it was 1/3 for a roof. Having the workers on site without the materials is wasteful, letting them go off to other jobs is also likely to lead to problems. It shouldn't be hard to find a good supply of matching bricks, but you don't want to be doing that in a hurry because the brickie is unable to save much of what you have.

Good luck.

 

[stuart45]

Matching the mortar is just as if not more important than the bricks. You can see how one or 2 replaced bricks stand out when the mortar is not matched, even with the same bricks.
There are two ways to match the mortar. One is to use the same sand and mix and allow it to change colour over time.
The other is to match the colour as it is, remembering that it will change colour slightly over time.
To get a sample of the sand put a piece of the mortar in brick acid. Adding a darker sand or pigments can make it look a bit older by toning it down a bit. If you have the time it's worth doing a few trial batches and letting them stand for a few months to see the colour.
Also soak down a part of the wall to see if the wet mortar matches the stuff you have mixed up.
I have not worked with many bricklayers who have ever bothered to match the mortar.

 

[chuckey]

To replace an individual brick is very time consuming, digging it out in lime mortar is a matter of minutes. Remove most of the mortar with a masonary bit on a drill, then use a thin chisel/ old power hacksaw blade to remove the rest. Do the bottom course first them the brick will "drop" allowing it to be wiggled out. Now comes the fun bit, lay your mortar in the bottom of the cavity, slide the brick in then drop it on the mortar bed, stick a chisel in the top slot and attempt to settle the brick down. With a straight edge, check the the mortar line, if its not right, remove the brick and the mortar, repeat with different amount of mortar, until every thing is OK. Put sausage of mortar on top of the brick , push it around the corner so it fills up the "perps", last sausages ( on top) will need to to worked in from the sides with a long thin striking iron. To replace a large area would mean taking out alternate bricks (or less) so there is some support for the upper part of the wall, but the perps don't have to be done at this stage, but the mortar must be left to go off so it can actually support the upper part of the wall.
If you go down the slip route, the area can be rapidly reduced in thickness by means of a electric wall chase, VERY DUSTY! I can't see why you should not cut your own slips with a large disc cutter (two from each reclaimed brick), again very dusty. I would be very tempted to glue the slips to the face of the old bricks with one of these gap filling adhesives, because they harden in a matter of hours. Then repoint the whole wall.
I believe you can get pre-mixed lime mortar, perhaps St Astier "eco-mortar"?, in loads of colours ( costs an arm and a leg but can be applied via pump gun so it goes in quickly http://www.stastier.co.uk/nhl/data/ecomort.htm). The real problem is that mortar has a certain colour with a patina of dust/algae/muck on its surface, so what do you colour match too?
Frank