"N. Thornton" wrote:
"Christian McArdle" wrote...
Toby wrote:

As this place will get sold within 5 years, I think I'll just give
the facade a scrub; this should give the mortar a fresher appearance
so may pass a casual inspection.

I've been warned not to do that as the bricks tend to become absorbent
and turn green. The accumulated muck keeps the water out apparently.

What is your source of information? It's fine to clean external
brickwork by non-destructive means. Things like sandblasting or
scabbling are right out though! You don't really want a build-up
of moss etc. on your house!


I've used 1:1:6 mix on small jobs such as window
reveals and it seems to have performed just fine.

If I understood it right it works but is weak, and will fail early.
Consider that decent cement or lime mixes should last over 50 years at
least. So 'early' might not be such a big problem.

See other post. I'm not trying to be nasty!


I gather the best mix is lime and sand plus a pozzolan. Brick dust is
a pozzolan, I dont remember what the others are.

Cement is a pozzolan, too!


On the flip side, lime mortar houses circa 1900 are great for putting
holes in, as easy as Lego.

You've got to be joking! My 1909 house is terrible for putting holes
in. The mortar and brick are so soft, it is hard to drill anything
without whole bricks disintegrating.

I had a job on Wed/Thu fixing skirting/picture rail, some to a party
wall. On the party wall I didn't use "hammer", just an ordinary drill
with a newly-sharpened masonry bit. No problem at all (LBC commons).
Not too noisy, either.

I wonder if you have undercooked bricks, rejects. Old bricks are soft,
but they shouldnt be that bad. Usually the rejects were used on the
inner layer of wall, so Vic houses tend to look a right eyesore if the
plaster's stripped off, with broken, misshapen, burnt and undercooked
bricks galore. Perhaps an inexperienced builder was involved. Who
knows.

Do you mean rejects, or regrades? Rejects are junk, cracked or mis-
shaped, used for hardcore etc. Regrades are bricks that are fine
except for slight damage and colour problems. You wouldn't want to
use them for facing. There are/were many, many types, textures and
colours of bricks. There is likely to be a "brick museum" or a "brick
library" at a BMs near you - for fun, 'phone up a few to see if anyone
knows where (or say approx. where you are & I'll see what I can do).
Obvious variations are from Staffordshire blues and similar which are
as hard as hell, to Baxi decorative bricks used in fireplaces, which
aren't as hard as your thumbnail.