Whilst stripping a plaster skim & 25mm browning wall under the ceiling
eaves, I notice the bricks just beneath the eaves are arranged very
differently. The bricks are a vertical soldier course of half bricks,
with the frogs facing inwards creating a very thin wall. This is about
15" above the chrysotile roof soffit line, 1949 build.

What I find odd is the soldier course is not fixed by mortar. Instead
the same plaster browning as that used underneath the plaster has been
used, easily scraped out by a screwdriver, 95% sand in terms of no
mechanical resilience.

Was it left to the plasterers to bring the brickwork up to the eaves?

On 11 Sep, 21:44, "js.b1" wrote:
Whilst stripping a plaster skim & 25mm browning wall under the ceiling
eaves, I notice the bricks just beneath the eaves are arranged very
differently. The bricks are a vertical soldier course of half bricks,
with the frogs facing inwards creating a very thin wall. This is about
15" above the chrysotile roof soffit line, 1949 build.

What I find odd is the soldier course is not fixed by mortar. Instead
the same plaster browning as that used underneath the plaster has been
used, easily scraped out by a screwdriver, 95% sand in terms of no
mechanical resilience.

Was it left to the plasterers to bring the brickwork up to the eaves?

In days of yore they used to close off the top of the cavity with
brickwork arranged in various ways. Perhaps something to do with that?

It could also be some sort of void that tha plasterer has filled using
materials to hand, ie bricks and plaster.
I don't think they had browning then they used to mix sand, lime and
cement in various proportions.

On Sep 12, 4:42*pm, harry wrote:
In days of yore they used to close off the top of the cavity with
brickwork arranged in various ways. Perhaps something to do with that?

It could be.

It could also be some sort of void that tha plasterer has filled using
materials to hand, ie bricks and plaster. I don't think they had browning
then they used to mix sand, lime and cement in various proportions.

Yes, that sounds like the mix - a very high proportion of sand.

Just interesting to see.