Browse Forums DIY, Home Maintenance & Repair Re: Brick wall dissolving! Help! 3Mar 10, 2015 9:35 pm Where you are coming from is where you are going to... Re: Brick wall dissolving! Help! 4Mar 11, 2015 5:10 am Foremost Building Expert in Australia,assisting with building problems/disputes, building stage inspections,pre-contract review advice for peace of mind 200 blogs http://www.buildingexpert.net.au/blog Re: Brick wall dissolving! Help! 6Mar 11, 2015 7:03 am Foremost Building Expert in Australia,assisting with building problems/disputes, building stage inspections,pre-contract review advice for peace of mind 200 blogs http://www.buildingexpert.net.au/blog Re: Brick wall dissolving! Help! 8Mar 11, 2015 11:18 pm Foremost Building Expert in Australia,assisting with building problems/disputes, building stage inspections,pre-contract review advice for peace of mind 200 blogs http://www.buildingexpert.net.au/blog Re: Brick wall dissolving! Help! 12Mar 12, 2015 9:21 am Where you are coming from is where you are going to... Re: Brick wall dissolving! Help! 13Mar 12, 2015 10:05 am Designer,Engineer (Civil,Const & Envir),Builder,Concrete & Masonry Contract.Struct Repairs Re: Brick wall dissolving! Help! 14Mar 12, 2015 11:15 am Thought these photos might be of interest, I took them just before our KDR. Some history. The house was already around 30 years old when we bought it and there were signs of fretting. After what we thought was due diligence we had work done. We were told this involved leaching salt from bricks, blasting away loose material and filling, then applying a membrane to prevent fretting. It wasn't cheap and from the photos you will see it was not successful. The house was red brick and the white is the membrane. As you can see the bricks continued to crumble behind the membrane until there was nothing for it to hold on to and it peeled away. The whole house was impacted, not just sections. Downstairs was double brick and the cavity was full of red rubble. One morning I was woken by noises outside our upstairs bedroom window. There were 2 beautiful parrots sitting on the sill, happily digging a hole through to the cavity! We have used exposure grade brick and rolled mortar in our new build. Our neighbour did this 15 years ago with no signs of fretting to date. Our house is very exposed, only about 100 metres from surf. Haven't heard of anyone having problems even a few streets back from the beach but I suppose a lot of factors come into play. Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ fretting 01 by snufl, on Flickr Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ fretting 03 by snufl, on Flickr Re: Brick wall dissolving! Help! 15Mar 12, 2015 11:33 am Great post snufl! Thanks for sharing. Cheers Foremost Building Expert in Australia,assisting with building problems/disputes, building stage inspections,pre-contract review advice for peace of mind 200 blogs http://www.buildingexpert.net.au/blog Re: Brick wall dissolving! Help! 16Mar 12, 2015 6:53 pm Thanks for all the responses! I can say that this is only affecting one wall. There are two sprinklers nearby that would "mist" onto the bricks so I will try and re-direct it. When I scrape off the white salty looking crystals, it does seem to have dissolved the brick by a few mm so I would say it is eating away at the brick itself. It does seem to have gone through the brick on both sides. Picture attached of inside. Sorry for quality but its hard to get a shot of it. So from what I can gather as a TEMPORARY fix, 1) I should first try to stop the sprinker from touching the brick. 2) Brush off the white crap inside and out. 3) Apply an acid to clean it. 4) Seal the brick I will get a professional in to check it out in a few weeks. Re: Brick wall dissolving! Help! 17Mar 12, 2015 8:01 pm Re direct sprinkler, allow the wall to dry out, then apply siloxane penetrating sealer at the rate about 1.5 sq mt / ltr. There are many on the market and are easily applied. The white cotton wool looking stuff is free lime and salt crystals,. ..usually it turns to nothing when you touch it/ sweep it. The forming of the powder usually means the wall has dried out since a recent soaking. If it is wet the crystal stay dormant(?) I'm not a scientist but I've seen it a few times where the wall will be wet up to about 300mm(450rammed Earth) and spreads around using the DPC to traverse the base of the wall. Where you are coming from is where you are going to... Re: Brick wall dissolving! Help! 18Mar 30, 2015 7:28 pm Watering may not be the only reason. Bricks and Stonework in buildings often crumbled badly due to leaking pipes or gutters, these must first be fixed. It may be possible to cut it away and replace it, using a sharp cold chisel and then apply siloxane penetrating sealer or other waterproofing agents. Re: Brick wall dissolving! Help! 19Mar 31, 2015 8:01 am Maybe Merry-B but I have yet to see any wall affected as georangers wall above and similar treated with any sealer, waterproofing agent, membrane, neutraliser or any other fix by so-called experts that did nothing but cover up or slow the process for a few years and I've been in the building industry for forty years. They usually cost a fortune too. The big issue is that once homeowners discover the problem then do something about it, the efflorescence, fretting, leeching and/or decay of the bricks etc is affecting the whole brick right the way through and not just the surface. All a lot of these treatments do is treat the top few mm. The membranes and paint probably make it worse as they then seal the problem inside the brickwork. Stewie Re: Brick wall dissolving! Help! 20Mar 31, 2015 9:37 pm A penetrating sealer binder will reduce if not stop moisture ingress, that in turn reduces salt ingressand the wet/dry cycle that has been happening for a very long time. Fretting bricks will have suffered damage beyond what you can see. The dusty surface will exfoliate easily until sound substrate is exposed, unless it is possible to bond the fretting surface. If the surface has a stronger modulus and flexural strength the surface will peal off the underlying weaker substrate. This is where the penetrating part prevents ingress and the binder part increases surface durability. You might get 7-10 years but at 6 years some maintenance will be required along the same lines as above. And this is my business ...... Glad wrap(aka membrane) /paint/aesthetic/decorative treatment will breakdown in 2 summers. I've spent decades dealing with the issues of rammed earth and rammed limestone and moisture ingress. Where you are coming from is where you are going to... Thanks for the detailed comments chippy, I'll use this as a guide. 3 20103 Coming back to this.... When installing a pressure flashing, what fixings would you use (please give a link) ? Above Pedro said nylon anchors. Anyone have a preferred… 7 27021 We used pro clima walls and roof. It's a high quality product (good vapour permeability and water resistance) and can withstand UV for a long period of time. Pro clima's… 10 23260 |