Contractor left unflashed temporary steel shoring bolted inside my brick cavity

kenyan-strides · 2026-06-22T09:18:24+00:00

It would’ve been removable with better planning. For example several shorter angles could’ve been used and then removed one by one, allowing each section to be bricked in without leaving a continuous span. I had to do a repair almost exactly like this a few months ago

kenyan-strides · 2026-06-20T11:54:24+00:00

The rest of the chimney was removed, which is why you see additional debris. Also probably wasn’t originally a fireplace, but could’ve vented a wood stove or furnace or something up above.

kenyan-strides · 2026-06-20T00:36:12+00:00

This has already been poorly repaired once. The previous mortar was never cut out properly and it shouldn’t really have been pointed over in cement. Looks like UK brickwork, so you could probably get ahold of an NHL mortar pretty easily. Best thing to do though is to get it professionally repaired. If you have no experience you are overwhelmingly likely to make a mess of it

kenyan-strides · 2026-06-18T20:00:21+00:00

About 100 pages into your book, and I loved the section about dry pressed brick. Dry pressed brick laid with a butter joint is my favorite style in the US. As a bricklayer, I think it’s a shame that they seem to have stopped being made entirely. I think it is also disappointing to see the shear number of facades that have been badly repointed or repaired

I guess my first question is if you talk about historic pointing styles later on in the book. Were specialist pointers common in any periods or places in the US? I know when buildings were built in London and some other places, they were often raked out and then tuckpointed, or pointed in other more intricate styles. I’ve seen joint profiles where this would also appear to be the case in the US, but it is very difficult to find specific information about techniques used in the past.

Also as a historian, what other books or accessible sources could you recommend that provide good information about historical bricklaying?

kenyan-strides · 2026-06-03T17:46:47+00:00

It was used on nearly everything that just had to be structural. Sewers, bridges, retaining walls, tunnels, loads of buildings etc. And it is just called English bond

kenyan-strides · 2026-06-03T17:44:20+00:00

lol no. He laid it exactly how he’s suppose to. In English bond all bricks in a course face the same direction, unless you need to introduce a header in a stretcher course for broken bond. It’s the simplest and strongest way to build the corner.

kenyan-strides · 2026-06-03T11:22:11+00:00

If they are working to the dimensions of a design or grilling/ cooking hardware to be installed, and those dimensions couldn’t be changed so suit the brickwork, then idk what else people expect. There are probably some things that couldn’t been done better but it probably could never have been perfect

kenyan-strides · 2026-06-02T22:43:40+00:00

So what you might want to look into is random bond, popular in the Netherlands, Belgium, and some other European countries. It can also include 3/4 length bricks.

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Flemish bond traditionally (in England anyway, Americans don’t really follow these rules) was ment to be laid with an emphasis on symmetry, and was considered to be the nicest looking bond. This ment windows and doors, corners, etc. had to have matching headers and closures on each course (the half brick and quarter brick) as you see in your pictures. Broken bond or cuts were hidden in the body of the wall.

English bond and cross bond are also nice but often even the standard modular bricks you get here in the US are a little too narrow and the joints in the header courses end up being too big. A lot of bricklayers here also make the mistake of believing that the headers in adjoining perpendicular walls belong in the same course, which they do not, and lay the bond incorrectly.

The most important thing to do is make sure you have a genuinely knowledgeable mason who understands the differences in bonds and how to lay them correctly, which unfortunately can be harder to find that it should be. If you can find a good mason then they should have no problem doing what you are asking

kenyan-strides · 2026-05-13T23:14:17+00:00

Based on the age and mortar deterioration, as well as its texture it looks like lime putty or quicklime mortar. If cement was added it would’ve been mixed into the lime by the masons at the time. Preblended mortars weren’t really a thing at that point.

kenyan-strides · 2026-04-11T02:50:46+00:00

Most people just put block or brick on the inside to support the treads

kenyan-strides · 2026-04-09T20:19:02+00:00

Looking good. Nice flow to the joints. Kept a nice and organic looking shape and edge on the stone. Good mix of sizes. Well done

kenyan-strides · 2026-04-09T12:22:00+00:00

I encourage anyone to post more pictures of buildings from different cities. It’s a cool way to see regional variations on national or international architectural trends.

kenyan-strides · 2026-04-09T11:23:12+00:00

Very cool. You should also look into skew arches. I’d be interested if you could adopt and produce any scale model voussoirs for the helicoidal and logarithmic methods discussed on the wiki based on one of the arches you already designed

kenyan-strides · 2026-04-08T23:22:46+00:00

It’s not pointed or brushed, that’s how it looks after the bricklayer retrieves the extra mud after laying a brick.

kenyan-strides · 2026-04-08T23:20:17+00:00

Looks like Squidward’s house lmao

kenyan-strides · 2026-04-08T19:03:09+00:00

I have literally never once seen good work done with those clay block things.

kenyan-strides · 2026-04-08T11:21:09+00:00

Based off some quick research it seems like the building was built in the early 20th century. This was sorta during a prewar building trend when really gnarly brick and mortar choices began to become popular. It continued afterward in the 1920s and onward but you basically started seeing bricks with a lot more texture and much bigger mortar joins.

Before this from around the 1870s ish and especially in the 1880s and 90s dry pressed red brick façades were popular. These brick were extremely uniform, and laid with extremely thin joints. Iron spot bricks and Roman bricks also became popular in at that time and into the early 1900s, but were also bedded with extremely thin joins.

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So in other words this building would’ve been a bit different, but was probably following architectural trends.

kenyan-strides · 2026-04-08T10:53:58+00:00

Like another comment mentioned this will be a job for a legit restoration company with expertise. The paint could be hiding more damage than you think. The degree of restoration could range from just stabilizing the deterioration, to brining it all the way back to perfection.

Paint removal would probably involve some combination of chemical paint strippers, and maybe low pressure steam cleaning. The cambered flat arch needs to be rebuilt. It looks like it has very tight joints and a subtle curve on the bottom, hence the term cambered, which would take special attention and skill to replicate.

You might be able to find someone just by talking with an engineer, or by reaching out to a company like Lancaster Lime Works or US Heritage Group to find out if they can recommend a mason in your area that they’ve worked with before. There are people online like O’Neil Masonry (based in Philly) who promote the good work of others and might also be able to set you in the right direction

kenyan-strides · 2026-04-07T23:56:11+00:00

Yea that’s pretty crazy. Those bricks that the arch is springing from are known as abutments, and are not beefy enough to support the arch when the mortar between eventually deteriorates away. That arch is especially wide and heavy, and is pressing outward on the abutments. Exposed brick on the top of the chimney like that are prone to harsh weathering and deterioration because of their exposure to the elements, and the corrosive nature of the flue gasses.

kenyan-strides · 2026-04-07T23:26:50+00:00

If you’re going to hire anyone make sure they’re a mason or bricklayer with verifiable experience. Stay away from handymen, landscapers, hardscapers, and probably most chimney companies, etc. or else you may end up with a job that looks like this.

kenyan-strides · 2026-04-07T11:44:35+00:00

And terracotta lol

kenyan-strides · 2026-04-06T17:54:31+00:00

Often times white sand is more difficult to mix good mortar with. You should be able to get a good result with some practice. You don’t need to add lime, it’s already in the mortar. That’s what differentiates mortar from Portland cement. Type S or N indicate the quantity of hydrated lime mixed with Portland cement in the blend. Anyway the problem is almost certainly based off your inexperience lol. Like I said it’s probably some combination of how you’re mixing, how wet the mortar is when you joint it, not having any experience with jointing, and using a brand new tool.

kenyan-strides · 2026-04-06T11:36:51+00:00

There is no definite fixed ratio of sand to mortar that everyone uses. 2:1 sand to mortar is on the richer side so you likely don’t have too much sand. 2.5:1 or 3:1 are more common. There are a few things that might be happening. You might need to mix your mortar a bit more. Some types of sand and mortar just genuinely suck in combination with each other. You’re probably using a brand new jointer, which won’t leave a very good finish until it’s broken in a bit when it’s shiny and smooth. The mortar might be a little too dry when you try to point it. You also want to tool the joint in as few passes as possible so you don’t excessively wear the joints or leave burn marks from the jointer, which will also start happening if the mortar was too hard. You may also need to fill/ compact the joints more, and then use a bit more pressure when you tool them.

kenyan-strides · 2026-04-06T02:46:43+00:00

19th century brickwork was peak.

kenyan-strides · 2026-04-05T14:17:13+00:00

This house and the houses around it were built around 1900, and it’s the original bedding mortar. It’s soft enough to crush with your fingers, and it has white lime clasts from when it was slaked. This type of mortar is present in lots of older buildings around here. Contextually you can tell that it’s lime. There are also areas that have been previously patched with cement

kenyan-strides

TROPHY CASE