Thanks for your response! I'm affraid the repointing was done prior to
our buying the house - I can't speak to the quality of the work.
Although the exterior bricks and mortar look great. The bricks arent
flaking and aren't easy to gouge. How do you suppose inferior pointing
would result in this dust?

The 'star' supports were installed at the time of the repointing to
stabalize the bowing on the front wall. They are essentially big
flanges that are bolted to rods that are run along and are anchored to
the floor joists on the second floor. There are two of them. These
are used on a lot of the older row homes in the area. If anyone knows
what these are technically called it might help.

One concern (from me - a non expert) is that the wall is shifting and
this shifting is resulting in wear on the bricks and causing the dust.


Joseph Meehan wrote:
wrote:
A mystery for brick experts:

I've got a 100+ year old row home in Philadelphia. The exterior is
brick. I've recently noticed that 'piles' of red brick dust are
collecting in the basement along the front and back walls of the
house. Does anyone have a suggestion for a list of problems that I
need to rule out to figure out what is happening?

Here is some potentially useful information:
The front and back exteriors have been repointed in the last 5 years.
'Star' wall-supports were installed at that time.
The front exterior wall shows a slight 'barreling' (bowing accross the
house as well as down the house).
The basement walls are stone and have been reparged in the last 6
months.

Any ideas are appreciated!

I have bad vibes about the re-pointing and how it was done and what
materials were used.

What are star wall supports?

--
Joseph Meehan

Dia duit