Brick veneer falling away from house

Question

I already suspect that I'm not going to like the answer, but I'll ask anyway.

My home has a screen porch, and in this section, the brick facade is starting to fall away from the house. It was caused, I believe, by continual water leaking onto the ledge-- the porch is covered by a flat roof that was not properly attached to the rest of the roofing system, and water had been getting under the connection, and that water would drip onto the ledge. (I think this because it is not a problem around the rest of the house, and I can also see water staining on the wooden panels directly above the ledge.) That problem (which did not happen on my watch) has been fixed.

Anyway, I can think of how to jack the facade back into place, but re-attaching it seems like a problem. I know that when it was originally built, the facade was attached to the studs of the wall between rows of brick. Because it has pulled away slightly, I can tell where the studs are, and it wouldn't be too hard to anchor the bricks back. However, I'm concerned that the type of fastener that I need to hold the weight of the bricks would compromise the strength of the 2 x 6 studs.

Any direction a professional could give me would be much appreciated.

Answer 1

The idea of pushing a brick veneer wall back onto its bearing surface is really not a good idea. Besides water will not push it off, something else did in my opinion, like wood that swelled up from the leak, but that will be minimal. I would still be more concerned about the water around the framing behind the brick. If the brick ain't fallen yet, it may not. But it may need to be taken down to repair the band joist, plate, perhaps. Then set the brick back with proper waterproofing in place so when water gets behind the facade it won't matter. FWIW, in a building science seminar I attended, the speaker Joe Lstibureck, discovered that brick allows 10 percent of the water that hits/saturates the surface to pass through its thickness to the what is a hopeful moisture barrier behind the brick, in front of the framing...

Answer 2

Wow, I don't know if I could figure out how to re-position the brick veneer back into place, but your question is about fastening them to the wood frame wall, once they are in place.

So, I see two problems: 1) proper anchors, and 2) keeping the wall "sealed" after the anchors are installed.

1) Proper Anchor: Veneer brick is not stable without anchors holding it in place. Usually these anchors are installed WHILE the wall is being built. (They are installed over the moisture barrier so the wall remains waterproof.) There are anchors designed for re-anchoring the wall AFTER the wall is built, but they are expensive and usually used for brick veneer on concrete or concrete block structural walls. We've used "brick screw anchors" when we've needed to re-anchor brick veneer in old (historic) buildings. These anchors are "screwed" into the brick (not mortar joint) at about 20"-24" oc staggered vertically and horizontally and not so far as to be seen from the outside. There are lots of manufacturers, just be sure to pre-drill first or you'll destroy the brick. For wood framing, I'd suggest anchoring the other end of the "screw" to the wood framing with an angle bracket. Believe it or not, that is the easy part...now the hard part.

2) Re-sealing the Wall: Now that you have a gazillion screws through the wood wall and moisture barrier, you need to re-seal the moisture barrier AND provide adequate weep holes. There is a rubberized product that can be sprayed into the cavity with a wand between the brick veneer and the wood wall, but it's designed for "spot" applications. I would assume the original moisture barrier has been destroyed when the brick veneer pulled away. The original "bacon strips" type anchors were probably rusted and tore the original moisture barrier (often just lapped building paper) when the brick veneer moved away from the wall. So, now you'll need to "fix" those tears. Finding and fixing those tears from above looking down that air space is nearly impossible.

In short, I'd recommend taking the brick veneer down, inspecting the wall, reinstalling the moisture barrier and then reinstalling the brick veneer, weep holes and appropriate anchors (don't use the bacon strips...)