Repairing bricks

How do people resolve the following?

Exterior brickwork where a previously screwed lamp has been removed, leaving holes in the bricks where the rawlplugs are or were.

I know some people just leave these holes open, but that seems like a bad option to me because if water gets in there and freezes the brick could be damaged.

I haven't seen a filler in the likes of Homebase for repairing holes in bricks and the only way I can think of and have used to good effect in the past is to crush a piece of brick to give some brick "sawdust", then mix this into the hole with some regular filler. The result is usually fairly pleasing visually - rather better than a gaping hole!

However maybe I'm scaling the rock face instead of taking the cliff path. Anyone else come up with a suitable solution that I've missed?

PoP

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Reply to
PoP
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=================================== Eh! Behave yourself a couple of drill holes in a brick not going to freeze it.?

Reply to
Grouch

The front of my Edwardian house is 'red rubber' bricks which are very soft. I have a few spare bits of brick that I have crushed to a powder, and mixed with waterproof pva and used as a filler. Very hard to see a repair - even where a waste pipe hole is filled up !

Andrew Mawson

Reply to
Andrew Mawson

Get yourself a packet of Milliput in the Terracotta colour! As it says on the packet (which I have before me right now!): "For the restoration of terracotta and other ceramics and the repair of garden urns, pots, statuettes and damaged brickwork etc."

This product, costing around £3.50, is a two-part, stiff plasticine-like putty that you mix together and mould with your hands. After 24 hours it sets rock hard. I used it on brickwork and the effect was amazing. You can force the putty into narrow cracks or nailholes, then dampen the surface slightly and rub over with a wet finger to smooth it. After some weathering you'd really have to look closely to detect its presence.

I don't know where you are in the country, but I found two outlets in the High Wycombe area pretty quickly (Isaac Lord and a small hardware shop in Marlow). Their web site is

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is one place you can get it on the web:
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Reply to
Mike Mitchell

I use a mastic gun to inject as much silicone sealant as possible into the holes, and then "face off" the visible holes with brick dust scraped from bricks out of direct eye level (eg. near ground level).

Reply to
Paul King

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