Based on BRE research and Government 'Decent Home' guidance, 60 years is
the projected life of a brick exterior wall. However, this does not mean it
will fall down after 60 years.

Check out some of the brick buildings from around 1850, and see how long
mortar can last without pointing.

I don't know what professional involvement you have in building maintenance,
but my original post was correct.

I agree small gaps are normally covered to prevent vermin and rubbish
ingress, but maintenance wise there is no issue with a wall in close
proximity

dg


"N. Thornton" wrote in message
om...
Hi


Lots of good advice and ideas in this thread. One exception.


Maintenance requirements come with age and weathering. If the wall is
sheltered, the maintenance over the 60 year projected life of a brick
wall
is reduced to nil.

House walls should last a lot more than 60 years. Maintenance isnt
always nil on interior brick walls, so it wont be on sheltered outdoor
ones either. It may be, but many times isnt. I have seen interior
walls that needed repointing to stop them collapsing. Sometimes its
necessary to gain access to repair to restore building structural
integrity when structural cracks appear. Losing access is a risk.


Repointing is purely to act as a weathering to prevent moisture
penetration
and is not structural,

this isnt true at all.


if the wall is sheltered by such close proximity then
no repointing is required.

not necessarily.


Such a drastic scenario regarding the bricks tipping is not ever
going to
happen in a house wall

I've seen it happen a number of times. Once the pointing goes, which
it does at some point, the fill of the joints comes out easily, and a
brick wall with half of its mortar fill missing is simply not a stable
wall. This is not a rare problem, it is easily seen on some
ill-maintained houses. It causes serious problems and must be
repaired.


and is reserved to chimneys which suffer from acid
attack from flue gasses.

no.


The new wall will actually be increasing the life of the OPs' mothers
wall
and will in no way be disadvantaging it in terms of future
maintenance

not so


I would not worry about the fact that a wall is covered forever - its
highly
unlikely that there will ever be a maintenance issue. The chances of
the
wall developing a damp problem is remote - as long as the new work
does not
in fact cause one - which it should not.

A gap you cant access is a recipe for build up of rubbish, leaves,
dirt, etc, which is liable to bridge the dpc and cause penetrating
damp. There are other ways damp can occur in such wall too, such as
dpc problems, ventilation problems, and so on. With no access your
solution options are going to be quite a bit costlier.


I would be very keen on sufficient gap for maintenance access.


Regards, NT