The solution to spalling brick faces was, as the text- books suggested, simple. It proved to be an easy task removing the bricks in question by hacking out the surrounding soft lime-mortar. Then by replacing a brick after turning it 180’, the clean face remained on show while the spoiled face became buried in the wall. Obviously not all the bricks could be removed and rotated simultaneously, the result of doing so I’m sure, requires no further explanation.
As might be expected I started next on the pointing, surely a technically simple task? I expected that removing the old mortar using a plugging chisel to be the method most compatible with the bricks remaining intact afterwards. However whatever material had been used for the original white pointing, it proved incredibly tenacious. Attempts to remove this using the plugging chisel resulted in the edges of the bricks breaking away with the old mortar. Therefore out came the angle grinder.
Always one to keep an eye on new-fangled hardware, it hadn't escaped my attention that diamond tipped mortar-raking blades were available specifically for the task. Cursed by an irrational compulsion to accumulate hardware and keen to exploit the advantages this new accessory promised, I paid a visit to Price Tools. Birmingham’s power tool emporium "for the trade !". Unfortunately I returned somewhat deflated having purchased a couple of conventional black carborundum discs; the mortar-raker would have set me back £100. Using the angle grinder was no barrel of laughs but at least it resulted in rapid mortar removal and with some concentration, relatively little damage to the bricks.
Back in the library I had no success in finding any reference to the practice of producing a white mortar, the library texts were probably too modern. I tried asking several builders merchants but was met only with blank expressions and shrugs. With this vacuum of knowledge, I wrote to Castle Cement. Although the customer relations member could not produce an answer to my specific question, the company were incredibly generous in providing a large volume of literature with their response. Among this I found the company product list which included white cement !, also of considerable use was a well written paper (number 362) from the building research establishment entitled "building mortar". Following some worthwhile experimentation I found that a mix of one part hydrated lime, one part white cement and six parts silver-sand produced a mortar with satisfactory strength and colour
Having made a brick barbeque in the past I knew all too well that the amateur brickie is capable of leaving an almighty mess on what should be a pristine brick face. Hence, I applied my mortar concoction into the brick joints as carefully as possible, and as the texts advise, I took the extra precaution of scrubbing the brickwork with a stiff brush once the mortar was half set. Despite all this, the dried mortar left the brick wall looking like it had been white-washed. Fortunately the text books came good and after scrubbing the bricks with a weak hydrochloric acid solution the pleasing contrast between bricks and pointing returned.
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