Crumbling brickwork at back of the garage?

Treacle44

We have noticed that the bottom two rows of brickwork on the back garage wall are crumbling in places. When I say garage, it's actually a room that used to be the garage but the back half was converted. It's a small area about 3 ft wide.

is this a major problem, or could it be remedied easily by a brickie?

Thanks

ormus

all depends?
simple cheapish remedy is to render the few rows at the bottom.
if the bricks are the wrong sort for the job, maybe they need replacing for the correct bricks. not cheap.

iamcornholio

If these are the two courses near ground level, then it seems like the bricks are perishing due to frost/persistant damp, and the fact that the bricks are unsuitable for this location.

The only answer is replacement, but how urgent this is is dependant on their condition. Not normally urgent, but they will be getting worse over time

Don't render these if they are below the damp course.

andrew-b

Are the bricks below the damp proof course (DPC)? If so then it sounds like the wrong bricks used for the wrong job (taking into consideration your "subsidence?" thread i get the feeling the builder didn't know what they were doing with tieing in to existing brickwork so chances are they used the wrong bricks too!). You could paint these two bottom rows with something like a black bitumenous paint (synthaprufe/or similar) which might help prevent further erosion by water penetration (the previous owner of our house did this but as a means of trying to fool the surveyor that the DPC was higher above the ground than it actually is - little did they know the building surveyor would be a decent one and my Dad!). Whatever you do be careful not to bridge the DPC.