Spalled brick

[Nimrod103]

On the corner of my porch there is a brick which is spalling - that is the exposed surface 2-3 mm is coming away from the core. The brick is immediately above the DPC, but it is not clear that this is being caused by water getting in. It looks more like it is just the surface of the brick in question was dodgy to begin with. As a temporary fix, I would prefer to just fill the surface, but obviously there is a risk it will just come away unless it bonds to the underlying brick. Any suggestions of how I should go about this?

[88V8]

On the corner of my porch there is a brick which is spalling - that is the exposed surface 2-3 mm is coming away from the core. The brick is immediately above the DPC, but it is not clear that this is being caused by water getting in. It looks more like it is just the surface of the brick in question was dodgy to begin with. As a temporary fix, I would prefer to just fill the surface, but obviously there is a risk it will just come away unless it bonds to the underlying brick. Any suggestions of how I should go about this?

Soft red?
If you have the bit that's come away, grind it up and mix with cement mortar for a repair, in effect using the grind instead of sand.
Very slightly damp the brick before mortaring.
Depending on the required texture you might want to lightly brush or stipple it before it completely sets.

Choose a period when frost is not expected for at least 48 hours.

V8

[DrFfybes]

If it was me I'd find a roughly matching one from a local DIY place, carefully remove the mortar from around the spalled one with an old wood chisel, clean it up, make up some soft sand and cement mortar, and then spend an hour faffing about trying to slide and mortar it in whilst the mortar in the bucket went off before thinking "sod it" and wandering up and down the road looking for someone having some building work done and paying a professional a tenner to do it properly.

Actually, a corner one I could probably manage, but making good the hole where I removed the old boiler flue was beyond my patience and abilities. The brickie next door did it in about 20 minutes, including removing the old part bricks to put full ones in for a seamless repair

Paul

[88V8]

If it was me I'd find a roughly matching one from a local DIY place, carefully remove the mortar from around the spalled one with an old wood chisel...

If one were going down that road, preferably with a more suitable chisel... one could just take out the brick and turn it around.

However.... only if it's set in lime mortar. If it's cement mortar, unlikely to be possible without destroying the brick.

V8

[bungeejumper]

If you have the bit that's come away, grind it up and mix with cement mortar for a repair, in effect using the grind instead of sand.
Very slightly damp the brick before mortaring.
Depending on the required texture you might want to lightly brush or stipple it before it completely sets.

Choose a period when frost is not expected for at least 48 hours.

Interesting idea! We have probably fifty spalled bricks in a 150-year-old garden wall. (They've had plant nails driven into them, and they cop a lot of frost out there.) I'll look into that, and I might give it a go.

My grandfather would have known what to do. He was a bricklaying foreman, and he needed to be at the top of his game in order to keep his team up to scratch. My mother used to say that his party trick was to toss a brick into the air, and then hit it with his trowel as it came down, so that the rectangular dimple sheared off the brick in one piece. Mind you, that was only his third best trowel.

BJ

[Dicky99]

There's no easy fix to a single brick.
Once the old brick grindings are mixed with mortar it won't match.

Good luck getting a bricky to fix one spalled brick.
One possible option is to find a local brick merchant.

They have sample cards which have brick slips glued to them I.e. brick faces about 20mm thick. Find a brick type that is near enough and make up some suitable story why you need to get hold of a sample card for a potentially big job. Hack the damaged brick back 30mm or so and epoxy the slip in place

They don't normally go in ones. Are there any signs that others may follow?

[Arborbridge]

Lucky there's only one!