What has to be done to fix flaking bricks on the side of a house?
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Bricks flaking off? Not a problem. For starters lets explain what is happening.
Once upon a time, the dinosaurs walked the Earth. We know this because we found their bones in the ground. So back to the dinosaurs. They walked all around the Earth and over time, due to the size of those creatures, you could assume that the dinosaurs did a good job packing the soil right? I mean they are huge creatures just stomping the dirt down. You’d say dinosaurs probably made good dirt stompers back in the day wouldn’t you?
Now lets fast forward to the time your home was built. Before any structure gets built, you have to dig out or escavate the ground for the foundation to be put into place. Well unfortunately some dude in a bulldozer or escavator dug up that nice dirt the dinosaurs spent so long packing down and moved that dirt to the outline of the escavation site. Once the cement for the foundation was poured in, all around the foundation or build site still has a surrounding trench that needs to have dirt be filled back in. The proper term is called “back fill” explaining that its unpacked dirt or aka loose composite soil.
Unfortunately again, there are no dinosaurs walking around anymore because some meaningless meteor killed them all. So who is going to repack that dirt? Nobody. Just some dude using a tamper and his little arms. Do you think his little arms and a tamper are packing the soil as well as the dinosaurs who had dirt stomping competition can? Probably not :).
Now I’m going to take a crack at this but one can assume that a structure that doesn’t have a proper gutter system installed is probably the main root to the problem. What is going on is water is falling from the roof straight down into the ground and is not being carried far enough away from the perimeter of house to allow proper drainage. Well, what happens when water is going straight down into the soil is that the water is now being aimed toward that loose back fill I just explained a minute ago by the dude who tampered it with his little arms.
Now this right here is a very bad scenario, because what happens is that loose soil aka back fill is now retaining water and during the Winter months is freezing which is causing the foundation to move. Once it hits Spring again, the structure will shift back due to the release of stress it was introduced too and the house will once again settle. Even if it was a centimeter that it moved; were talking ice vs concrete. Ice will win. Because the foundation is now shifting it is now causing the whole house to resettle in a different location then where it was originally placed or “layed”, ultimately it is causing the walls of bricks to move and is causing it to crack. These cracks are called stress cracks.
As long as the damage isn’t to bad. And by “to bad” I mean the whole wall isn’t getting ready to collaspe. A person can successfully repair the damage by doing a few things.
Step 1: Check to make sure ALL flow of water is able to efficiently move away from the perimeter of the home as best as possible. This includes but not limited to raising the grade of the perimeter a foot and allowing it to slope away from the house at least 10-15 feet. Insure if a gutter system is installed that it is not plugged up and allowing water to just spill over the sides, rather then down the downspouts. Ensure that the downspout have the boots at the bottoms to allow water to flow away from the home. You may even want to buy the downspout boot extensions to ensure water is far enough away from the home as possible and that there is no way it will drain back to the foundation.
Step 2: Once you take care of the water not flowing any where near your perimeter of the home’s foundation you can go to work on those bricks. Carefully with a wire brush go through ever inch of grout inbetween the bricks and remove with the wire brush any lose debris. If you are able to remove a whole brick do not worry. All is not lost. Just remember where the brick came from and remove that whole section for now until your are done wire brushing all lose materials out where your can.
Step 3: Use a water hose and spray off any little grit after your done with the wire brush. It will create dust from brushing and the left over dust will not allow the new grout your about to use to stick to the areas needing attention.
Step 4: Two routes can be taken here. A concrete silicon from a silicon tube can be applied to areas where there are hair line cracks. If you have anything bigger then hair line cracks use mortar and like it was originally being applied just fill in the gaps and insure your trow pushes the motar in a deep as possible inbetween the bricks. So again, anything bigger then a hair line crack use motar to fill in the gaps. And anything less then a hair line crack use silicon to fill in the gaps. This will prevent water from entering into the cracks causing them to expand more during the winter months.
Step 5: This usually isn’t necessary but if you wish, use a acrylic-latex based sealant made for sealing bricks. Every 2-3 years reapply one coat to ensure the sealant is keeping up with weather conditions. Applying and maintaining a sealant coat over the brick of your home is like maintaining a deck. You spray it on with a little pump bucket and use a pre-soaked roller to spread or push the sealant into the pours of the brick.
As always good luck and hae fun.
The bricks are absorbing water and when they freeze it causes the face of the bricks to flake off, Apply a masonry sealer to prevent this
The causes could be many, water damage, shear pressure, bad vitrification to mention a few.
What can be done?
Well it’s a matter of taste, esthetics and economics. How many bricks are flaking 2 , 20 ,200? If only a few, and you are ok with a superficial repair , dremell out the damaged face and use a matching veneer and re-grout, This is a non structural repair just visual. But with out seeing the whole picture of your particular situation , it’s difficult to give you an accurate answer.
Water is getting in and behind them .cheap quick fix brush them with coarse broom then generously apply a silicone based sealer. Check window sills and parapit walls for spots for water to get in. If there is big gaps in the mortar ,probably should think about getting them pointed
The probable answer is water penetrating the brick if you live in a freeze thaw climate. Sealant may help stop the problem but may increase the problem if not done by a professional cement restoration company. Replacing the brick and painting with a good masonry paint will insure that water cant penetrate the brick but can be an eyesore.
Normally it’s caused by water penetrating the face of the brick then freezing causing the face to expand and peel off. Depending on how many bricks are damaged you can re-face the damaged brick by first applying a masonry glue then a mortar dyed to match the existing brick. If a lot are damaged then either replace or a cheaper option would be to cover with 2 coats of plaster.