Brick homes are some of the sturdiest houses you can build, buy and live in. However, that does not mean that a brick house will not have structural issues at some point. If you find that your brick house has a major rift starting after a hurricane or flood, you will want to get it promptly repaired. Unless you know a lot about bricklaying (and not a lot of homeowners do) you will want to call some masonry contractors. Here is how a masonry contractor does the job.
Sizing Up the Rift
The masonry contractor will examine the rift in the wall of your home. He or she will need to see if the damage affects the interior of your home as well as the exterior. The contractor will also need to see if the rift is localized (above ground) or extensive (below and above ground, i.e., the damage extends into your basement or foundation). This helps the contractor decide how best to approach the repairs.
Installing Supports
As you can imagine, brick walls that have a rift in them are precarious at best, catastrophic at worst. To make sure the precariously positioned bricks remaining on the edges of the rift do not cascade down and out and cause a veritable waterfall of bricks from above and to the sides, your contractor will install some supports to keep the intact parts of the wall right where they are supposed to be. The supports act like keystones, holding and bearing the weight of the surrounding bricks to prevent more bricks from coming loose and toppling out while the masonry contractor fixes the rift.
Rebricking
In what seems like a game of reverse Tetris, your masonry contractor will apply mortar/cement to the top and bottom of each brick he or she replaces. Whenever possible, the mortar/cement is applied to an existing brick in the wall and then the missing brick is laid on top and tapped gently into place. Mortar or cement is pushed into the spaces between the sides of the bricks and smoothed using grouting and finishing tools. During the rebricking process for the rift in your home's wall, the contractor will work from the bottom of the wall to the last missing brick on top. If there is any interior damage in the home due to the rift, then this will be addressed after the rebricking process so that the strength of the new brick wall can support any of the interior structures while the contractor works on them.
Is your brick home in need of repairs? Get in touch with a masonry company like Trinity Masonry & Concrete to learn more about the repair process.
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