I have zero bricklaying experience so need a quick bit of advice.
I need to brick up an opening where a coal chute came into the cellar. The chute is formed of a stone slab coming down at an angle thru the bricks. It is a smooth surface.
Do I need to take measures to ensure the bricks I lay in the opening are in some way keyed to their surroundings other than by mortar?
Any suggestions how? I thought of drilling and chiselling 'shelves' into the slab for the bricks to rest on.
tia
Antony
You can get drill in wall ties, you drill into the existing wall, and screw the thing in, you end up with a hook like thing that goes into your mortar bed.
Use blocks not bricks if the opeining is big, you need less, if using bricks avoid the ones with holes, they are a bitch to cut in the right place.
Rick
not clear on details, but i wouldnt want to build brickwork sitting on a steep slope.
You'd have to chop out to a level for the base or make a secure pad by drilling holes in the brickwork and inserting 4" nails and then casting a concrete pad.
Drilling holes up the sides for nails would serve to key the courses. I just used to knock them into the mortar every second or third course as I went along. (Them were the good old days them were.)
that'll work for a while, but nails will rust, rust expands with great force, and everything will end up broken apart by the rusting metal.
If youre going to put metalwork in it, stainless steel would be much better. You can buy ss studding for a few quid (screwfix etc), drill holes, insert £5 resin, insert stud pieces, and it'll last.
Or you can bodge it - most do. really there are various ways to do it, depending really on what you want life wise, what tools you have, what you want to spend, and how decent you want it looking.
NT
I think I'll use wall ties to key the new bricks the old either side of the chute slab. Perhaps a piece of steel screwed across the front to the wall either side too for good measure
Antony
I would think that'd just make extra work, wall ties are big. If you have a grinder to slice in far enough for a wall tie, why not just cut the existing half bricks out and do it properly, so it ends up the same pattern as the rest. If you havent, kinzo grinders are only a fiver, and should do it no prob.
If you answered the qs we could show you your options - what you say there should work though, long as the openings nothing big.
I need to say Im not recommending you do anything, as without seeing the structure etc, who knows what hidden issues might be lurking.
NT
Lime mortar will be safe enough. You might use masonry nails or rawlplugs and brass screws.
I'd just nail some 1/2"ply to 2x2s srewed to the wall. Job done, no fuss and nothing iretrievable.
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