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January 22, 2007
Brick Sand Problemo
its been almost a year since we finished our major reno in bed stuy and we have been noticing what looks like fine brick sand (pulverized reddish brown material) accumulating beneath the base/shoe moldings along the interior wall of the front facade wall (garden level). have no idea what this could be, but since it is accumulating at the rate of nearly 4 inches every two weeks, thought it would be wise to find out...
any suggestion?
Comments
Hey,
I have seen this problem many times in the basements of late 19th
century brownstones. We have the same problem in our basement with our brick piers.
It is the brick disintegrating due to moisture. You need to find the source of the moisture and after you dry the area out (remove the baseboard during this process), then you can fill in the area effected with cement and replace your baseboards.
I also used a sealer / waterproofer product to complete the process.
Good Luck
Jn@LP
Posted by: JN@LP at January 23, 2007 7:37 AM
Jn is right, probably moisture (and salts) weeping through the brick, causing it to spall in small section. If this is a 19th century house, its quite possible the mortar used to repoint/rebuild the wall is too hard - mortar should be sacraficial, so that the water will pass through it and not the brick.
Posted by: Halden at January 23, 2007 8:31 AM
I used to live in an apartment with exposed brick and found the same thing was happening. The wall where this was happening was a party wall so i doubt it was moisture. I don't know the reason why it happened. But eventually I moved to another apartment in the same building also with exposed brick but this time they had sealed the brick (not sure what they used whether it was just plain poly or ??) and i found the problem went away.
Posted by: Anonymous at January 23, 2007 10:01 AM
There are a lot of ifs but, if when they did the demo they left debris in the joist pockets or at the wall plates on the floors it could now be falling from above. The above posters are right about the source, but I have never seen it accumulate so fast. Many times lazy contractors will hide small amounts of debris, crushed plaster/structolite ect. when working instead of cleaning up everything. Could also be years of brick dust that have suddenly been allowed to pass some existing obstruction.
Posted by: Anonymous at January 23, 2007 5:27 PM
OP here--much appreciate the informative posts. Thanks.
Posted by: anonymous at January 23, 2007 7:34 PM
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