Interior brick wall - crumbling bricks
I live in a 100+ year old brownstone style building and I have an exposed brick wall in my living room. The bricks are not sealed and they create a lot of dust. Some of them are beginning to crumble and have lost their outer coat (so the terracotta is showing – and creating even…
I live in a 100+ year old brownstone style building and I have an exposed brick wall in my living room. The bricks are not sealed and they create a lot of dust. Some of them are beginning to crumble and have lost their outer coat (so the terracotta is showing – and creating even more dust). The brick wall is a supporting wall and the majority of the bricks are fine. The ones in the worst condition are in a cluster. I noticed that one area was in worse condition than the rest on Friday when I took down a mirror that had been hanging for four years. I don’t think the mirror contributed to the deterioration because it was hung on a nail that had been hammered into the mortar before I bought this place and it wasn’t pressed right up against the wall. I moved it to make room for a new bookcase and now I’m worried about what’s going on back there. Does anyone know what would cause this and what can be done to fix / stop it?
I live in Orlando, Florida and we don’t have Brownstones here to my knowledge. I would love to give the appearance of the interior of a Brownstone in my studio and wondered if anyone could tell me if there is a way to do this? I hope this isn’t an insult to anyone here as I’m trying to fake a Brownstone, or at least a brick wall interior. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Thank You,
Karen
I live in Orlando, Florida and we don’t have Brownstones here to my knowledge. I would love to give the appearance of the interior of a Brownstone in my studio and wondered if anyone could tell me if there is a way to do this? I hope this isn’t an insult to anyone here as I’m trying to fake a Brownstone, or at least a brick wall interior. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Thank You,
Karen
Samandjoeshow,
Can you recommend a good brick handyman to help me with my various crumbling bricks…in my 110+ year old house?
When bricks are manufactured they are fired at the end of the process which creates the hard outer shell, much like the crust on bread. When the crust crumbles away (spalding) exposing the soft middle the brick will continue to slowly crumble away. Sealer may stop the crumbing for a few weeks and poly, for a a bit longer, but it will also yellow the bricks and look terrible. Once bricks start crumbling like that the only permanent solution is to scrape the mortar away and replace the entire brick, preferably using another old brick. (old bricks were much softer than bricks made today). Also use lime based mortar, which is much softer than the cement based mortar used today. One of the most common reasons that spalding happens is that a batch of bricks were not properly fired. It can also happen from paint or polyurethane on brick. Bricks need to breath, to take in moisture and air and release moisture and air. When they are sealed with things like paint and poly moisture will stay inside the brick for much longer and reduce the life of the brick. You do not need to replace these bricks for structural reasons… there are plenty of good bricks holding everything up.
Hand scrape the loose particules.
Tuck point all the joints.
And finally polyurethane.
And you’ll be on the safe side for a while.
You need a sealer on the bricks. Clear polyurethane should do the trick.