Either side of our front door, we have two columns of rustic bricks,
which protrude from the general brick wall about half a brick. They
begin at ground level and progress all the way up to a (rather useless)
concrete overhang. This later precast item sticks out around 20", but
as the prevailing wind is face on to the front wall, it offers no
protection at all. The bricks are quite soft and in places spalling
quite a lot. I have been wondering quite what to do about the bricks.

One idea I had was to simply cement over them, reproducing a brick like
pattern in the mortar before it sets up, then paint them over. I have
already had to do similar where a brick has spalled its face completely
at the base.

Another idea was to clad over the top with wood, or plastic cladding.
At a pinch I suppose I could look for stone cladding, but as it would
be the only stone, it might look rather odd. The plastic cladding would
need to have some sort of fluted pattern in it, to make it look half
reasonable, but do they sell anything like that? Wood I would expect to
rot quite rapidly, as it would be sat in water at the base and the rest
quite exposed.

Just scratching around for ideas at the moment..

--
Regards,
Harry (M1BYT) (L)
http://www.ukradioamateur.co.uk