Hole in my brick wall (with pic)

united4ever

Should I be concerned about this hole in the wall? It is a cavity wall 1960s house. I don't fancy getting up there on a ladder? Would a general builder be the trade to make it good and is just filling it with mortar enough? How much would you pay for that - not a scaffolding job is it?

Not sure what has caused it. Don't want birds getting in there and nesting.

tacpot12

I don't think you need to be concerned about it; it looks like an isolated failure of the face of single brick. In theory the brick could be replaced, but getting one to match could be difficult. If you can collect the bits that have fallen off, the best appearance for a repair might be obtained if these bits can be attached; e.g. with a resin adhesive. 

Filling it with mortar would be better than nothing, but I would ask the contractor to do something to give the mortar to key to; e.g. fit a couple of small screws to the existing parts of the brick using plastic plugs. 

I would expect that a builder might charge upto £150 for the work - you might find a local handyman with the ladders and confidence to do it, in which case the cost should be closer to £100. 

Murmansk

It looks to me a bit like what you might get if you tried to drill a hole from the inside rather than drilling from the outside? 

Rosa_Damascena

It's blown, not cosmetically perfect but not going to cause a structural problem either.

Carrot007

Murmansk said:

It looks to me a bit like what you might get if you tried to drill a hole from the inside rather than drilling from the outside? 

I was thinking that. Maybe an old overflow pipe from a tank in the loft? (I have such a hole, but it was drilled properly!)

stuart45

If you use mortar rather than replacing the 2 bricks, it's worth using a dye to match the colour of the bricks better, and cutting out where the joints are and putting false joints in with a different coloured mortar. 
For larger patches I put in some bits of brick to help prevent the shrinkage. 
To help bond to the existing a bit of SBR and cement mixed to a paste and put on the existing works well.

Grenage

Out of curiosity, what's the stance on removing bricks and turning them round?

stuart45

The bricks look like LBC London brindles which only have one face on them. The other side is a standard Fletton common.
Some bricks can be reversed if the other side is OK.
Myself I would normally cut out bricks and replace rather than just use mortar.

Grenage

Ah I see.  I was curious because that's what I did when I repointed my wall (cheers again).  A previous repair with plain mortar looked awful.

stuart45

It is possible to do a reasonable repair with mortar if you colour the mortar to match the bricks, and then when it's hardened up a bit cut out for the joints and point them up to match the colour of the existing mortar joints.