Hi
Interesting question: what causes bricks to blow out, their surfaces to expand and turn to powder?
Regards, NT
Bricks blowing
Feb 13, 2004
7 Replies
Would it not be water ingress ,then the water freezing,expanding and doing the damage .? Stuart
In the case of soft victorian bricks, it is usually someone repointing them with a cement based mortar so that the mortar ends up harder than the brick so when things expand and contract something has to give.
N. Thornton wrote on Friday (13/02/2004) :
Usually porous bricks. They absorb moisture which then freezes, expands thus blowing the brick face out.
Some patterns of bricks can easily be put in upside down. You will sometimes se a wall that looks wet in ome places and dry in others shortly after rain. I imagine that if frost gets on the badly placed ones, the frost can blow the face off.
Err, what's the alternative to cement based mortar ?!
P.
lime based mortar
Regards, NT
You know what I'm going to say now...
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