Out the front of my house is a small brick wall. At one end is a brick built post which has been leaned on one too many times. It is still standing but wobbles very badly because the mortar is cracked all the way around about half way up. Is there some sort of glue which can be used to stick it back together? It's not really possible to take it off completly so I need something which can be squeezed into the gap. Any ideas???
Mortar. Rake out the broken joint, deeper than you would if just repointing, and repoint. Adding a _tiny_ amount of PVA to the mortar will improve its tensile strength and reduce the chance of that joint breaking again, but the mortar really needs to reach full strength before anyone leans on it, which is several weeks.
What size is the post? It may be that it's just too small for its height to survive anyone leaning on it (e.g.
1 brick x 1 brick). Is it not joined on to the wall above the break?
The standard glue for this sort of thing is epoxy resin in a cartridge, its about a tenner per cart IIRC. You have to use the special mixing nozzles with it.
The cheaper option is to rake out the mortar with a grinder, being careful not to rtemove enough to destabilise the wall, and replace the mortar, but as Andrew said, the new stuff will take some while to achieve good strength, so the epoxy may be what you need, its less work too.
NT
Car body filler works well, but you would need to take the whole thing off
Hi NT,
I need to do a similar job (except the pier in my case has sheared away from the lower brickwork completely). Is this the sort of stuff you mean:
Cheers!
Martin
The cheapest way would be the one that works; that is knock it down and rebuild it. Either that or knock it down and replace it with a poured concrete one. You can't glue masonry not on that scale. You might get away with it brick to brick but then you might as well do it properly.
And any of that resin bonding crap is asking for it.
Car body filler is cheap enough. About £12 for 3.5 kgs from car paint suppliers. I've used it successfully on piers as long as the surfaces aren't too dusty. Easier while the weather is cold as you get more time to position it. I wouldn't count on more than 5 minutes though
very steep! Try... no I cant find it, but if you google you should fine the tubes at =A38 and a quality double barrel gun at =A320-=A325.
Metolux Metoset E by Nickerson, 400ml, about =A38 each.
The Cox dual barrel is an excellent gun, though for just one pier maybe you can find something cheaper.
A very expensive per volume way of buying epoxy. You dont need much, but even so I'd think araldite would be pricey.
Personally I dont have any hesitation spending the money on epoxy as it cuts out most of the labour involved, making it a fast easy job, and gets you full strength within 24 hours. It also rapidly eliminates the danger to life & liability of a sheared pier. If that brickwork falls on a small child there would be hell to pay.
I havent done this with the car body filler Stuart mentions, but I guess it would probably be ok. Its not whats specified for structural repairs though, so I wouldnt expect to see the life expectancy epoxy has. And I dont know if there are other issues with it.
There are also cheaper resins that fit in a bog standard 300ml gun, eg polyester resin at under a tenner. But again these arent whats specified for structural work, and there has to be a reason why.
I see screwfix do a Cox single barrel gun at =A322.49, and you wont find better than those.
NT
Epoxy injection is routinely specified for structural repairs.
Rebuilding may be cheaper but its a lot of work to save =A320 (resin) less a fiver (mortar cost).
NT
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