Small brick pier 12 courses high, 2.5 bricks wide and 1 brick deep at side of entrance gate adjoining footpath has broken away from the morter bed at base and below course 7. It could possibly hurt someone if pushed over. Other than a total rebuild is there any safe way to repair it?. Liam
The message from Liam contains these words:
It sounds as though the pillar now consists of 2 removable pieces. If the rest of it is still stuck firmly together why not take the 2 lumps off as they are, chisel the defective mortar off the broken joints and reassemble with new mortar in the broken joints?
If I have the weights right each lump would be about 2 cwt which is a bit of a handful to actually lift if working solo but easy enough to tip over. The top block could be tipped onto a solid platform say 18" high and the bottom block temporarily out onto the footpath.
Thank you for reply. I have now removed the sections but was wondering how to get them together again without the mortar being squeezed out by the weight above it. What mix is recommended?
Put a few carefully-placed large pebbles in the mortar bed to hold it until it's set?
The message from Liam contains these words:
I tend to use 4/1 for just about everything but almost everything I build is in stone rather than brick. If you use too strong a mortar with brick the brick will fail before the mortar but I don't think that would be an issue if it is just 2 horizontal joints that are being replaced.
If I was rebuilding your pillar I would use a fairly stiff mix but soak the mating surfaces well before assembly. ISTM that if you use a stiff mix and dry bricks you won't get a good bond between mortar and brick but as I said above I am used to stone, not brick.
You have a problem if you are doing it now - frost. I think I would prefer a frost free week forecast before I started such a job.
Is the mortar still in place and sound, just split away from the brick? If so you could use a resin to glue the pieces together.
Thank you all for your help. Much appreciated. Morter is a bit crumbly but has only broken away from brick on one side so I suppose a resin repair is possible but I will try to clean it of and use a 4:1 mix when weather gets a little milder. I like the idea of using pebbles.
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