Browse Forums Renovation + Home Improvement 1 Jan 03, 2017 3:44 pm Hi: I have a wooden farm house near Crookwell in NSW built prior to 1907 which I am slowly restoring. The brickwork for the chimneys (for the two chimneys on the outside of the house facing the weather to the West) is starting to spall in places (a line of bricks in particular about 30cm from the ground) and I am wondering how to repair the damage and prevent it occurring elsewhere on the chimneys. With the recent wet spring / summer, it is readily apparent where water has seeped into the brickwork from the ground (a salt mark about 50cm from ground level is evident on the brickwork). Given it is a rough farmhouse and I have other more urgent work to do, I really want to avoid replacing bricks (besides I don't know how I would obtain similar looking bricks). I was thinking of cleaning up the surface where it is spalling and mortaring over it (with colouring added to the mortar to match the brickwork), then painting the brickwork closest to the ground (up to about 2 metres) with a brick / mortar sealant such as: https://www.bunnings.com.au/crommelin-4l-brick-and-render-water-based-sealer_p0960095 Is this a viable repair? The Crookwell area gets quite hot (above 40 degrees C) in summer and cold in winter (pipes freezing, snow occasionally). Thanks, Jason PS, I searched and could not find any information here in brick spalling. If there is another post addressing this issue, please point to it. 2 8358 I should have followed up on this thread. So, the pier foundation wasn't large enough on the side it was leaning towards, and the NBN cable went through the pier, just… 8 12127 Just be careful with building stability during construction, that is when the structure may be weakened, refer to your engineering drawings for stability methodology. 1 7224 |