Motorcycle Mike
Well-known member
What do I need to fix my brick? How much should it run me?
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Any Brick Masons or Masons wannabes here?
- Thread starter Motorcycle Mike
- Start date
Motorcycle Mike
Well-known member
I'm talking about a real mason now... not someone belonging to some ******** cult.
Just that crack?
It's allready settled, no sense in tearing it apart, it will likely crack again.
Do it yourself, inject it with epoxy to strengthen it and seal it, leave yourself a small channel so you can do a little mortar touch up to hide the repair.
You might also consider doing a brick sealer treatment as it will keep the mortar and brick from absorbing any more water.
It will make it last alot longer too.
It's allready settled, no sense in tearing it apart, it will likely crack again.
Do it yourself, inject it with epoxy to strengthen it and seal it, leave yourself a small channel so you can do a little mortar touch up to hide the repair.
You might also consider doing a brick sealer treatment as it will keep the mortar and brick from absorbing any more water.
It will make it last alot longer too.
Motorcycle Mike
Well-known member
I was told by a wise brother in law that I should get a metal soffit and build it up as the frame behind it is good and it is not too much brick/mortar to fix. I was considering just filling it in, but I don't want it to look off, and nor do I want water to freeze/thaw and expand the crack more.
Between horizontal brick #9 and 10 (from the left), you've got a vertical crack.
Under the first 4 horizontals, you've got a crack in the caulking, that shouldn't be there, and some cracking starting.
If you want to do DIY, head to the builder's supply, and get a bag of pre-mix morter. (you don't need much).
Buy yourself a 1/4" pointing tool, and a trowl.
Chisel out any loose **** from the crack(s). Brush it clean.
Mix up your mortar, and push it in the crack using the pointing tool.
Yank as much of that old caulking off as you can, and replace it with some good exterior silicone caulk.
(if you want to do it ghetto, they sell tubes of mortar that you can squeeze in with your caulking gun - won't last more than one year tho)
Under the first 4 horizontals, you've got a crack in the caulking, that shouldn't be there, and some cracking starting.
If you want to do DIY, head to the builder's supply, and get a bag of pre-mix morter. (you don't need much).
Buy yourself a 1/4" pointing tool, and a trowl.
Chisel out any loose **** from the crack(s). Brush it clean.
Mix up your mortar, and push it in the crack using the pointing tool.
Yank as much of that old caulking off as you can, and replace it with some good exterior silicone caulk.
(if you want to do it ghetto, they sell tubes of mortar that you can squeeze in with your caulking gun - won't last more than one year tho)
Motorcycle Mike
Well-known member
I'd like to do it right though...I am a (flat) concrete man by birth... Dad owned a concrete basement/driveway company... so I agree with my BIL that this should be rebuilt from under the crack... a proper soffit, reused bricks and new morter to make this solid. I don't want to do a half-arsed job and have to revisit it. So any brick layers here that want to work for cash and beer? Or to kijiji I go?
You know the story, if you start tearing that apart, it's gonna get expensive fast.
Unless you plan to have a custom curved lentl built to fit that arch, i'm not sure what your brother meant.
You could secure the straight rows above it to lighten the load, but you'll need to take alot of it apart.
In my opinion, it's totally minor as far as the way it looks to the eye, it would be really easy to hide that repair.
It has settled itself at this point for some reason (corner sank a bit, weight of snow on roof, the design of the arch of bricks , etc...) , so just reinforce it and seal it.
Epoxy is 100 times stronger, it is used to repair foundation cracks, as i said, leave a little 1/2' channel and spackle a new mortar seam to match the rest.
I would chase out the mortar around the cracks and re-point as mentioned. If the settling has stopped that should be the end of it.
If it moves again you are looking at a massive job to undo the original errors. Arches should be self supporting without steel lintels but the geometry looks wrong to me.
If it moves again you are looking at a massive job to undo the original errors. Arches should be self supporting without steel lintels but the geometry looks wrong to me.
When you're done fixin' your crack, this will solve your water penetration worries.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yurZZQzySIE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fztnwzBFt6g
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yurZZQzySIE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fztnwzBFt6g
Sealers is for people who dont know better. Looks like your house settled. I would just fill with a matching mortar. Otherwise it may crack again. Just make sure you dont fill in any drainage holes. Is this place newly built? I would like to see a better picture and perhaps the section their used to build from.... as I dont see any drainage holes. Might be your problem... its not draining which would cause the wood to swell and contract more drastically.
Motorcycle Mike
Well-known member
I was fairly drunk when I took the pictures above, and when I wrote most of those posts too, so I decided to take a better picture:
Background: The house is 23 years old, but I just bought it so I don't know how long this crack has existed.
If you look at the photo, the crack mostly follows the joint of the wood and the brick, except for the 7 bricks to the left of the large centre brick where the crack follows the mortor joint.
It was nearly 6 months ago that I talked to my brother-in-law about this issue, so I might have mixed up some of the terms that he used. I believe he said that the framing for that whole area is solid and well built, but that a steel lentil really should have been used when they built this.
It appears that many neighbours with similar houses have replaced the whole wood part with metal, got new garage doors, and have had lentils installed at some point in the past 23 years.
I appreciate all of the advice so far, and I am leaning towards just filling the crack in some manner if that is a suitable solution.
http://i.imgur.com/hR4zi.jpg
Background: The house is 23 years old, but I just bought it so I don't know how long this crack has existed.
If you look at the photo, the crack mostly follows the joint of the wood and the brick, except for the 7 bricks to the left of the large centre brick where the crack follows the mortor joint.
It was nearly 6 months ago that I talked to my brother-in-law about this issue, so I might have mixed up some of the terms that he used. I believe he said that the framing for that whole area is solid and well built, but that a steel lentil really should have been used when they built this.
It appears that many neighbours with similar houses have replaced the whole wood part with metal, got new garage doors, and have had lentils installed at some point in the past 23 years.
I appreciate all of the advice so far, and I am leaning towards just filling the crack in some manner if that is a suitable solution.
http://i.imgur.com/hR4zi.jpg
Personally I hate the look of metal with brick...Same with plastic. Wood and brick feels more natural to me. But then its not my house and you got to go with what you like. A stronger lintel will help with the weight of the brick and in new buildings there is always a steel lintel to support brick. Also there really should be a good 10mm of sealant between the brick and the wood (or metal or whatever you do) as the two materials expand and contract at different rates. Is that sealant or mortar above the wood? That may be part of the issue also. When the wood contracted the mortar would crack. Lastly how does this crack look in the winter as I am assuming this picture was taken recently.
Motorcycle Mike
Well-known member
I don't really care if wood and brick or plastic or steel with brick. I just want to make this look decent without spending too much or going over-board for the labour that is necessary. The joint between the wood and the brick is a sealant, and there is a large crack in much of it. So i'm guessing I should rip that out and reseal it, and then the crack in the mortar needs to be either chipped out and replaced or filled with some sort of epoxy? Would that be a suitable solution?
The sealant is prob dried up then. 23 years old... yeah. I would replace it with new backer rod and caulking. Mortar can be replaced. Most brick places can help you get a matching mortar colour. Keep in mind it'll look odd till it dries thru.
there is likely a lintel buried in that woodwork, I think building code 23yrs ago called for it. Gravity has just gotten the better of a designed arch that is apparently not self supporting. Its pretty common in subdivision building, sand is cheap, so the masonry cement is a bit soft. I think if you start to take that down, you are going to have the front wall in your driveway. I would get a bag of masonry cement, the premixed sand and cement stuff, and maybe some sealbond to mix a bit in, it makes the cement more "plastic" and helps adhesion., Get a mortar piping bag, it looks like a cake decorating bag and pump the seam full. It will never color match perfect but it will look better than the crack.
Those caulk products for filling mortar joints are awful and look really bad.
I'm in a 30yr old subdivision house, the building standards meet code at the time but thats all you could say for them.
Those caulk products for filling mortar joints are awful and look really bad.
I'm in a 30yr old subdivision house, the building standards meet code at the time but thats all you could say for them.
If it was my house I would just re-point the cracks myself. This looks like a wood structure house with "brick siding". "Modern" homes have just one course of brick and the brick is not part of the structure but just a fascia (they are real bricks, just not structural, they act as a siding more or less).
Older homes were solid brick structures (real brick homes) and have tie in rows that tie together multiple courses of bricks (I see no tie in rows in the pick and the style of brick was not typically used in real brick homes). In these homes there is no wood structure on the outside walls, the bricks do it all. The bricks form the structure of the building and a crack like this would have me real worried in this type of house.
I am no expert but if it was me I would re-point them myself, not really all that hard to do. Just make sure the cement you use is softer than the brick otherwise next time it will crack the bricks.
Older homes were solid brick structures (real brick homes) and have tie in rows that tie together multiple courses of bricks (I see no tie in rows in the pick and the style of brick was not typically used in real brick homes). In these homes there is no wood structure on the outside walls, the bricks do it all. The bricks form the structure of the building and a crack like this would have me real worried in this type of house.
I am no expert but if it was me I would re-point them myself, not really all that hard to do. Just make sure the cement you use is softer than the brick otherwise next time it will crack the bricks.
mbroyda
Well-known member
I was fairly drunk when I took the pictures above, and when I wrote most of those posts too, so I decided to take a better picture:
Background: The house is 23 years old, but I just bought it so I don't know how long this crack has existed.
If you look at the photo, the crack mostly follows the joint of the wood and the brick, except for the 7 bricks to the left of the large centre brick where the crack follows the mortor joint.
It was nearly 6 months ago that I talked to my brother-in-law about this issue, so I might have mixed up some of the terms that he used. I believe he said that the framing for that whole area is solid and well built, but that a steel lentil really should have been used when they built this.
It appears that many neighbours with similar houses have replaced the whole wood part with metal, got new garage doors, and have had lentils installed at some point in the past 23 years.
I appreciate all of the advice so far, and I am leaning towards just filling the crack in some manner if that is a suitable solution.
http://i.imgur.com/hR4zi.jpg
There is no lintel behind it for 2 reasons:
1 - they don't make round lintels
2 - its an arch, and an arch is a self supporting structure (as long as its built right), the keystone (the big one in the middle) is what ties it all together.
looks like when it was build they didn't set it in properly, and now it sagged a little, which is not that big a deal because now that its set its not going anywhere.
what you need is a grinder with a masonry disc, some masonry cement,sand, and a pointing tool.
- cut out the damaged cement with with the grinder (can be done with a chisel, but will take longer)
- mix the cement with sand and water
- use the pointing tool to pack the cement into the gap
- tool the joint for a clean look
- go have a beer
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