new wall??

lynsiloo

My fiance built a wall in our back garden (which took 2 years), it is your usual cheap bricks dont know the exact name. The trouble is that some of them are cracking i think cause of the cold, does anyone know if we could skim over them all covering them?? Hope somebody knows what i am on about!! Help!!

Nile

Hello lynsiloo

Welcome to the MSE site.:wave:

We have some expert contributors on this board, so hopefully someone will answer your question shortly.

Kind Regards

Nile

Volcano

If it is built using house bricks then it doesn't matter how cheap they are they shouldn't crack through cold. (Some ornamental 'bricks' aren't designed to take too much weight and are used for small retaining walls,). If the cracking follows the mortar joints then you can fill these and it should be ok.
If it is actually the bricks themselves that are cracked (especially if the crack follows a line through the wall, maybe diagonally or vertically) then it is likely to be movement in the wall base.

If it has stopped moving (i.e. the cracks have got no bigger in the last 12 months or so) then your idea (called rendering) would work. However if it hasn't stopped moving it could easily fall down. Either way it won't be too safe and if it was me then I'd take it down, relay the footings and rebuild to be on the safe side.

lynsiloo

the foundations are secure, the wall is very stable it is the tops of the bricks that are all coming away, not so much cracking but crumbling, its just anoying and looks crap.

Volcano

Probably due to the top bricks being exposed to greater weathering than those lower down. Chip off the crumbling bricks and relay with new ones, then if you want to render over the whole wall (which will give greater protection to it) then you have a firm structure to do so.