Repairing Brtickwork

[Pat]

I have removed three 1.5" waste pipes from a kitchen through wall to outside. I am wondering about patching up the external holes they have left: two of the holes were across two bricks of different courses - and one was across three bricks of two courses. I could remove the remnants of the bricks, carefully remove enough bricks from different places in a different and hidden wall - use them for repair - and put best match new bricks in their places.

Or : I wondered about mainly filling holes with mortar - and then finishing off with coloured mortar to match brickwork and old mortar.

Ideas or suggestions would be appreciated.

(Thanks for comments re Gas bayonet)

[Weatherlawyer]

It is a tricky job for a skilled man but an amateur won't have much chance. You need to remove full brick and the mortar around them. Then replace the bricks with exact matches which will vary from not being easy to being imp ossible.

if you do happen to find a set of matching bricks remember they have a righ t way up and will be very difficult to set at the right level, angle and wh atever. Then you have to try and match the colour of the compound used to j oin them. And not smear it all over the finished work.

Good luck with that.

[News]

In message , Pat writes

One tip I read years ago was to pulverise an old brick, and mix the powder with the mortar such that the mortar matches the brick colour, then fill the hole with that. May require a little experimentation though, to get the colour right, particularly after drying.

[Harry Bloomfield]

News a écrit :

I once attepted that and it was a miserable failure. You need an awful lot of pulverised brick in the mix, far too much to make for a decent mix, to get the colour.

I would just cut out and replace the bricks. You can get the bricks to stay level whilst they set, by inserting strips of wood or similar under them, then once set - pull the supports out and point it.

[Capitol]

Cut the brick in half lengthways first.

[tabbypurr]

any mortar instead of brick idea is going to look truly crap.

go to your local reclaim yard with the old brick to get a match. Usually easy.

not really. Just pay attention to get it sat right.

You won't get a match there unless determined. Just use 1:1:6 or 1:6.

yup, take care not to. If you do, brush what you can off & come back later with brick acid.

It's all doable, just take some care over it to get it looking good.

NT