Continual exposure to water is usually the primary reason that you’ll find water damage on your brickwork. Defective rainwater systems are one common reason you’ll find your walls under continuous attack from the elements. One of the most preventable problems homeowners will face, I am still shocked to this day with the amount of water drainage systems left in disrepair.
If however you do find that you’re suffering from damaged brickwork, here is some advice to help repair the problem if you feel handy with a trowel.
The continuous exposure to moisture in the cement between your brickwork will cause it to soften, from the outside in, so the first thing to do is rake the cement out from in between all your brickwork, about 15mm deep, or until you start hitting solid cement again, taking care not to damage your bricks.
The surface area must be cleaned once you’ve finished raking out the soft cement, and then with a clean pointing trowel you can begin to fill in the joints. Always fill the perpendicular, or vertical joints first, and then fill in the bed or horizontal joints, finally running the repair slightly over the affected are so as to blend it in to the older brickwork.
When the brickwork itself is water damaged the affected bricks must be carefully removed and replaced, taking care to match the existing brickwork. It is always worth noting at this stage that a brick that has been spoiled on the showing face can quite often be good on its remaining face . If carefully removed in one piece it can be turned around to show the unaffected side. This will be the best match to your existing masonry. After removing the problematic bricks, the hole should be brushed clean of any loose sand and a new bed joint is to be laid making sure that the joint is full.
The last joint in your replacement brickwork is the most important. This is the joint that will be directly under pinning the exsisting brickwork and this should be compacted using a piece of hard wood the same thickness as the joints. This is used for ramming the morter to the back of the new joints. Care should be taken that the replacement bricks are bedded in line with existing face work to insure continuity and an inconspicuous repair.
When it comes to cracking in your walls, if you only have cracks following the pointing of your brickwork usually this isn’t such a big job to have repaired, however if your cracks follow on through the bricks then those bricks will need replacing, as well as work being done to discover and repair the root of the replaced were the horizontal cracking has occurred it is a simple repointing job has described.
It goes without saying that before you attempt these repairs you must take care of any remedial work first , checking also to see potential future problems and addressing them accordingly.