Advice requested for repairing crumbling decorative brick wall

[Danny D.]

My sister bought a 1960's house with a crumbling brick wall which I offered to fix for her - so first - I'd like to ask your advice.

The wall does not appear to be a supporting structure; and for the most part, it appears to be sound - except a section under the porch where the top few layers are crumbling apart.

Two basic question:

1. What would make the wall crumble only in parts?
2. What advice would you give me for a DIY repair?

Note: It's in a liquefaction zone - so I may need to reinforce it.

TIA

[Ashton Crusher]

If it was mine I'd just remove the loose bricks and remortar them back into place. The most likely cause was a poor batch of mortar the first time around.

[Ed Pawlowski]

That is my thought also

[Dan Espen]

Hmm, some of those bricks never had mortar. I'd say something hit the wall and broke it. Then someone removed the broken bricks and laid new bricks in place.

The rest of the wall doesn't look to me like it's crumbling. Just some small gaps.

[Danny D.]

It does seem to be broken only in one side. I'd find it hard to believe though, that some bricks never had mortar on them; but I don't know the history.

[Danny D.]

Ooops. I just looked again at the pictures, and I see what you mean. You're right. Some of those bricks aren't the original bricks. Maybe the previous owner put them there to make the wall look better?

[harry]

It looks to me like someone has started to rebuild that wall but never finished the job. Some bricks look newer than others too. Just finish the job.

The brickwork design around that post is bad and will cause problems in the future.

[Dan Espen]

That's what I'm thinking. The OP should remove all the loose bricks and post another picture.