Crumbling bricks in Victorian house

Detroit

Hi,

Could anyone offer their thoughts on the best way to address crumbling bricks in a Victorian property?

The house is an end terrace with front and rear walls rendered and end wall exposed. The bricks in the end wall are badly deteriorated in places.

As I understand it, the options are:

Dig out and replace the bricks
Use bricks slips
Render the wall

Builders opinions seem to vary as to what option is best.

There is no need to consider the appearance of the wall, and cost is secondary to the quality of the work and preservation of the property.

Many thanks in advance for your help.

Thurso_man

It will most likely be because the wall he been re pointed at some point with cement. This sets harder than the bricks and the moisture then !!!8216;escapes!!!8217; through the bricks. Then when it freezes the moisture in the bricks expands and cause the brick to start to flake.

If you take out a part of the cement you will probably find a dusty line mortar behind it.

By re pointing in lime will help the bricks but it is a lot more expensive than cement. I paid £40 a sqm for rake out cement and replace with lime. Plus scaffold.

Detroit

Thank you Thurso man.

Was anything done to address the bricks themselves? Or can they just be left in their current state, with the new pointing preventing any further issues?

Thurso_man

Unfortunate as they have started to crack then they cannot be put back unless it's possible to replace them.

I used a stonemason to carry out the work. I got the opinion that the builders didn't really want the job and a stonemason seemed to take a bit more pride in their work and did a really tidy job.

road2manchester

Some companies like Decopierre Stonecoat offer surface repairs to brick and stone facades effected by age and frost.Lime based products work well for this.
They cover UK from soewhere near Manchester and do heritage conservation as well as re-facing with a render that replicates the bricks over old render or pebble dash. Worth a look I guess

Detroit

Thank you for your replies and suggestions.