Questions tagged [brick]
For questions generally relating to the artificial stone-like building material typically called "brick", and also related materials like "cinder block" and natural stone blocks.
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What style of home and type of construction is my home built in 1900 in Georgia, USA?
Just purchased this home this year, it was built in 1900 and is Northwest of Atlanta, GA. The real estate and hazard insurance companies considered it a "wood frame," but upon trying to ...
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Which dowel to use for drywall in front of brick wall with air inbetween? [closed]
I want to hang something heavy so would prefer not just using the plaster wall. There is a gap of about two centimeters behind the plaster and then brick. What type of dowel would work best for this? ...
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DIY Stucco Repair on a 100 year old brick rowhome
Hello fellow home improvement masochists.
My partner and I are in a 100 year old rowhome in South Philadelphia, and we have a rear exterior wall that is stucco over brick in need of some repair. There ...
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Can I use pavers as a basement floor in an 1830s farm house? [closed]
I have an 1830s New England farm house with a dirt floor basement. I have put down a plastic vapor barrier and put down crushed stone over it. This alone dried the house out considerably, and during ...
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What is this slimy, orange shiny substance on my brick floor?
We just bought an old house (built late ‘70s), and noticed this substance all over the indoor brick floors. What is it?
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Can I cut out asphalt driveway to lay brick?
I just purchased a house and want to remove the asphalt driveway and lay down brick instead for three reasons:
First, the existing driveway is very narrow in some places and I want to widen it. Second,...
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The brick is falling away from the rest of the house, how do I fix this the right way?
I bought this house and I noticed this gap in the wall outside. Looks like the previous owner has tried to fix it in the past with foam and other materials.
There's a squirrel coming into the attic ...
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What compressive strength are historical Kreischer yellow brick?
I've asked a variation of this question before around using soft mortar for historical brick - and I've seen variations of recommendations on using Type O mortar or some other hydrated lime mix.
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What is the correct tuck pointing mortar ratio for a 1907, St louis brick main support column in basement. Lime? Portland? Sand? Water? [duplicate]
The owner believes the bricks are softer bricks due to the age of the house. All the research i have done say's after 1900 most houses in this area used Portland cement, lime, and a sand mix. I just ...
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How can I repair this screw anchored into mortar?
We bought a home where the handrail for the entry steps was screwed into an anchor in the facade mortar. The anchor has pulled away and left a pretty big hole at the joint:
The front of the handrail ...
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Can I hang a hammock from a anchor in mortar?
Can I hang a hammock from mortar?
I have a hammock that I’m wanting to put up in my back yard. The only way I can achieve this is by using the brick wall and my wooden fence post. The anchor point I ...
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Should I be concerned about the cracking on this exterior brick wall?
I recently purchased this house so I am learning something new about home ownership everyday. Today I noticed this crack on my exterior brick wall. Not sure if this should be a cause for concern or if ...
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Painting over limewash brick
When we moved in to our home an interior brick wall had been painted over with some type of opaque white paint.
I decided to limewash the wall - a coat of prep coat and two coats of limewash. It ...
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Attaching ledger board to brick and block wall?
I'm building an enclosed 1 floor addition on the side of our house which will extend our side entry to become a mudroom and provide for a pantry off our kitchen.
We need the space under the addition ...
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Are these cracks in a brick wall due to subsidence?
I've had my house about 5 years now, I did notice these cracks but nothing showed up in the report but now I'm starting to get quite worried about them. They've not gotten worse from what I can see ...
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Can I hang shelves on a brick wall from the mortar, not the brick? [duplicate]
We're renting a house with exposed brick walls inside, and would like to put up some shelves. The landlord doesn't want us drilling into the brick itself, but he's fine with us drilling into the ...
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Attached garage with brick exterior facade
I have an attached garage with a brick veneer exterior on 3 sides. The interior walls that were behind the brick walls have completely rotted out and are not structurally sound. At current, one ...
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Can I reuse bricks from my removed fireplace?
We are removing a 46 year old brick fireplace that has a wall of brick attached to each side of fireplace. The chimney has been removed from roof so fireplace is unusable. It is not a load bearing ...
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Paint/ inside of stone wall
I recently moved into a ~150 year-old Victorian Terraced House in London. The people that lived in here before had glued some things to the interio wall that left some ugly areas upon removal.
I am ...
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How to fill this hole between balcony deck and brick wall?
What materials do I need to fill this hole on my 2nd floor balcony? It's deeper than it looks. There's nothing for bondo or caulk to adhere to do not sure how to create a backing.
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Can I set bricks into my concrete slab as height guides? [duplicate]
I need to make sure my concrete slab is flat and level (with slight fall for water runoff).
I have some spare bricks. I was thinking I could set some of these bricks into the slab as I pour it and use ...
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Mounting doorbell camera on brick facade
Unfortunately according to the mounting template, one screw hole would be in the brick and the other would be in that mess of polyurethane non-sag sealant. I'm not sure what my options are as I don't ...
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Brick Restoration [duplicate]
I recently bought an older home that has a brick wall by the entrance that was painted the same color as the house (not a fan).
What methods or products do you all recommend using to make this brick ...
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How can I install a door in this opening?
I want to install a door in a very tall wall opening , this is a brick wall and was originally just a partition wall between 2 apartments.
The dimesions of the opening are 0.65 m wide and 2.5 m tall ...
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Filling in holes between brick wall and interior window frame
So my partner and I are working to restore an old interior brick wall (about 100 years old). We have stripped off the plaster and cleared out all the loose, crumbling mortar in some sections of the ...
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What do you suppose is causing the separation and disintegration of these bricks? [closed]
This is no longer my problem, but I'm curious what you assume is happening here. On the inside, the floor appears to be sinking towards the center of the house. Another area of brick is leaning away ...
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Where to cut the opening for bath vent in crawlspace wall?
My first-floor half bath vents into the crawlspace, which violates the code, and I would like to correct it. A feasible way is to extend the hose from the current vent in the crawlspace to the nearest ...
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How to insulate exposed brick interior in Michigan
I have a study room that extends from our brick colonial that took in some water a couple years back during a nasty storm. I’m in SE Michigan. I had to tear out all the wood paneling and insulation, ...
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Filling holes in brick wall
In my house (England) there are multiple holes from old pipes in the walls. The walls are made of red bricks and the house is approximately 70 years old.
I want to fill in those gaps - also in some of ...
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How to properly patch the "scar" in the wall after the door removal
I am doing a small home improvement project by removing the door between the entrance room and the corridor in the apartment. I've managed to remove the door and the bricks around it and am now left ...
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Can I tile over or tear down this free-standing interior brick wall?
I'm doing a full bathroom remodel and when I took all the paint off one of the walls, I discovered it's brick. This wall used to be the exterior of the house, but an extension was added in the room ...
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Uneven wall studs impacting project to finish garage
I'm in the planning stages of finishing our garage. My goal is to run new wiring, add insulation, drywall, and install a wall-mounted organization system.
The house was built in the 1960s and is ...
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How to fix hairline crack in brick on exterior of house
I have a cracked brick outside my window, and it looks like the crack runs down the mortar to just under the window ledge.
The piece of the brick that cracked off is movable (ever so slightly) if I ...
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What is the best way of attaching chipboard/particle board/melamine kitchen cabinets to a brick wall?
Googling, I was surprised to find limited information on this. I only get "screw cabinets to wall".
However, I want to know:
What kind of screws? Normal, large, anchor, with wall plug, ...
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Insulate wall with brick exposed
I'm currently redoing my garage and encountered the issue of a wall in the garage with brick exposed and 2x4 as framing. i want to insulate this wall as we are planning to add a home gym and the ...
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Tools for removing ceramic tile baseboard from concrete wall?
I want to replace my tile baseboard with a PVC one, from what I gathered I should be able to remove it with a chisel or a crowbar but I've tried with a chisel and all I can do is chip away the ceramic ...
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Mortar washout on brick
Moved into a home and looks as if when the retaining wall was installed they allowed the mortar to washout and stain the bricks. What we are left with is a very ugly street facing wall. Not great for ...
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Securing a junction box to an exterior brick wall
I was replacing an external wall sconce, and noticed that this octagonal junction box doesn't seem to be affixed to the brick wall around it. There's no visible nails, screws, mortar, etc. around it.
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What is this white runoff on my brick siding? [duplicate]
The home was built in 2021 and I moved into it 2 months ago. Just noticed this on the side of the home only in this place. What is this? Does it need to be fixed, if so how? Thank you very much! As a ...
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How do I properly secure zipline anchor to brick?
I would like to learn how to properly secure an anchor for a zipline to the side of my house and confirm the type of anchor to use. I've read this previous thread but have different requirements.
I am ...
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How to begin repairing this wood corner siding?
I noticed my house has a hole in this corner siding where wood meets the brick. Any ideas how to repair it (just some basic guidance)?
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Paint or white-wash fire-place
Our fireplace has a fan to turn on to blow hot air out a strip of vertical bricks (no grout) will this get too hot and ruin paint or whitewash? The fans are disabled but this area still gets hot. ...
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Basement outlet on exterior wall oozing water [closed]
I walked downstairs and saw my outlet oozing a brown substance. Guessing it is dirty water from the outside (I have a sprinkler going and it is hitting this part of the house). Also guessing it is ...
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How to tear down a brick chimney
My 100 year old chimney is in bad shape, so I decided to tear it down and rebuild it. Prior to beginning, I thought it was just the bricks and a steel liner, however once I took off the crown and the ...
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Can anyone guess what on earth happened to this wall?
Hello, today my wife and I were looking round a lovely 200-year-old house (UK) and one of the outbuildings was in this state. They inform us it's been like this for 20 years, but in my mind, it looks ...
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How do I seal and make this window in brick casement look better?
I have a window from my kitchen that goes through a brick veneer wall. The wall shifted at some point in time years ago, pulling slightly away from the house. As a result, there is a much larger gap ...
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Should I reopen or create new weep holes in a brick veneer wall?
Some portions of my house have a brick veneer wall (that is, a brick wall that is not structural; cement blocks on the other side support the structure - please correct me if I am calling it the wrong ...
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Should I fill this gap between the cement porch and (veneer) brick wall of my house?
There is a (growing?) gap between a cement porch and the brick casement of my house. Should I fill this, with mortar or some other substance, or leave it alone?
From the marks on the brick, I get the ...
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Is it safe to parge historic interior brick basement wall with hydrulic cement at grade?
I have a historic house from 1906 with soft bricks that had water leaking through top of basement wall near ground/grade level. Opening up the basement ceiling I can see that the mortar is all gone, ...
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Water seeping through mortar in an old wall
I live in a 150-year-old building. The exterior walls are very thick brick (2 layers deep). My apartment's exterior wall has some of this brick exposed (bottom half covered by dry wall, top half is ...
