Browse Forums General Discussion 1 Jul 18, 2014 10:01 pm Newbie, be gentle! We live in Sydney and have a 100yo + old brick home which had an extension 10 odd years ago. The brick joints in the older section are probably original and despite having a "crust", break it and scratch underneath have become like sand I.e rub the joint mortar (terminology?) and once the crust is broken the joint is very sandy. Some sections have joints below head height that have started to deteriorate to the point in sections there are major gaps. We got a quote for repointing at $20k+ We simply can't afford this. Putting it out there, rather than repointing all the walls is it a completely dumb idea to fill the joints sections with major gaps, and then paint the brick walls. Logic being the painted surface will preserve the joints from further deterioration. Spent hours searching the web for any answers- zip to indicate if this is an option. All advice good and bad much appreciated Cheers Paul Re: Repoint brick walls or paint? 2Jul 20, 2014 3:24 pm Quote: Putting it out there, rather than repointing all the walls is it a completely dumb idea to fill the joints sections with major gaps, Yep it is a dumb idea if you don't mind me being blunt. Your mortar is probably the old lime mortar which degrades over time. You need to re-point the whole house as it is the mortar between the bricks that holds the whole wall together. To not do so is foolhardy seeing as you know what the problem is. Whole walls have collapsed on older homes as the owners did not rectify this problem on their houses. Painting over the compromised mortar is like painting over rust in your car. It'll look good for a few months then will degrade quickly. Stewie Re: Repoint brick walls or paint? 3Jul 20, 2014 7:13 pm Stewie D Quote: Putting it out there, rather than repointing all the walls is it a completely dumb idea to fill the joints sections with major gaps, Yep it is a dumb idea if you don't mind me being blunt. Your mortar is probably the old lime mortar which degrades over time. You need to re-point the whole house as it is the mortar between the bricks that holds the whole wall together. To not do so is foolhardy seeing as you know what the problem is. Whole walls have collapsed on older homes as the owners did not rectify this problem on their houses. Painting over the compromised mortar is like painting over rust in your car. It'll look good for a few months then will degrade quickly. Stewie Thanks Stewie, blunt is good ! What has me perturbed though is that they say they only remove about 20mm of the old mortar and then replace it. It is a double brick wall, so why would just "reinforcing" the outside 20mm make such a structural difference? Re: Repoint brick walls or paint? 4Jul 20, 2014 11:36 pm The outer layer of the mortar becomes the weakest as the weather breaks it down. The inner layer while in some parts is probably relatively weak as well will probably suffice to help hold it all together. We have been involved with some renos in inner Sydney where we had to remove some badly affected sections of the outside skin of bricks and re-lay them. Other sections just needed re-pointing like yours. What condition are your lintels in? Usually we've found that if the bricks need re-pointing then the lintels are in poor condition too and should be replaced at the same time. Stewie Render your bathroom walls, two opinions versus the one, makes you wonder. 3 4192 The spacing of the studs looks pretty large especially for a load bearing wall. 3 8142 Nope, only on the inside, I've literally has my ears to the brick outside and can't hear anything. I can sort of 'reset' the noise by pressing firmly on the studs. This… 10 5015 |