Safe Luxury

Renovation project! Deteriating brick wall anything i can do to make it last? Mortet etc?

Im planning on renovating this old garage building.Its going to get a new roof with osb sheets (which it doesnt have) its going to get dry wall on the sealing etc.The walls are made of brick and im on a budget.When i dig my fingers in to the brick (not the mortor) or just whip across, it falls like sand. Not all of them just a few. I heard of a sealent or mortor that i can put over it to harden and make the wall good and safe.Any one know were i can get this or if itll pass inspection etc.thanks a bunch.

Public Comments

1. A couple of problems here. First the brick. There is no magic fix for deteriorated brick. If the deterioration was in the very early stages, perhaps but not with the degree of degradation you are talking about. If it is just a few brick, it might be possible to replace the problem brick with new. You need to use caution when selecting products to repair this type of brick. If the brick are really old, they are probably rather soft. Standard mortar in use today can cause problems, you may need a special mortar with a high lime content. See http://www.nps.gov/history/hps/tps/briefs/brief02.htm for a bit more. Second problem is the roof. You note that you plan to put OSB on the roof and that there was none there before. What was there before? OSB can add a substantial amount of weight to a roof structure. If the existing roof structure was not designed to handle the added weight, this could be a problem as well.