Hello all
I have a small question about replacing mortar in an old brick wall (about 100 years old). The wall in question is a 2 wythe load bearing wall that used to be the exterior of the house, but ~50 years ago an extension was built. As a result, the wall is now an interior wall.
When exposing the wall (it's in good enough shape to keep as an exposed brick wall), I noticed that there is a section of missing brick about 1 sq ft (clearly intentional). There are also a couple loose mortar joints, etc.
To my question: I'm looking to mortar in a couple of bricks and repoint some of the joints. I've heard that for extremely old brick type O mortar should be used. However, this is a load-bearing wall that won't encounter any weathering issues - should I use type N instead?
I'm not worried about color matching, the patched area is not going to be one of the exposed areas. I am concerned about load, as I am going to be cutting a doorway into the brick wall and putting a header in, so the patched areas will experience somewhat increased load.
Any advice out there?
Thanks
Paul