"Jerry Built" ] wrote in message . ..
"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.

I cant remember Im afraid. Youre saying scrubbing old bricks up wont
make them go green? Thinking about it it makes sense. I expect only if
they have water sitting or splashing on them theyre likely to green.


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 got that. What's the best action?


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 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.

Rejects. In Victorian times as many as 50% of bricks made on site were
rejects: broken, cracked, funny shaped, undercooked and too soft, etc.
Bricks were generally made by itinerant gangs who came to the site,
dug up the clay and burnt the bricks on site. Later pressed bricks
took over. Aesthetically the hand made bricks are far nicer, but the
reject rate was high, and the junk was normally used for the inner
skin of the wall.

I just wondered if you might be going into undercooked bricks there.


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).

Theres a good site online, cw lots of piccies, I lost the address
though.


Regards, NT