Brick Porch With Cement Top Repair Question

KnHProperties

I'm looking at a property that has a leaky porch which covers the 8'x6' fruit cellar. The house was built in 1952. The basement walls seam fine through out the rest of th home. The brick which supports the porch is cracking and i can see daylight through some of the mortar. Water has come through there and runs into the subpump which is in the cellar. My question is do I need to tear the porch down and rebuild it? Or can it be fixed correctly by patching the cracks and maybe sealing it from the inside. The bricks support a cement floor of the prch. Would like to do the least expensive correct fix. Would love some input.

gc101

why don't you let a structural engineer take a look at it?

lukachuki

Pictures of course would help but it sounds like the footers or lack thereof have cracked allowing the brick to settle. Any attempt to seal the cracks would probably not be totally effective as the brick will slowly continue to separate, ultimately cracking the concrete top and then bringing the rest of the house down with it in an incredible implosion of dust and building material. Ok maybe not the last part but it sounds like a structural issue.

__________________
"The problem with internet quotes is, you never know if they are authentic." -Abraham Lincoln-

Less with the jaw more with the paw!

stacker

depending on the age of the house,it could just be the fact that the mortar between the bricks has failed over the years.this is a common trait of lime and portland cement that is several years old.i run across this alot here in oklahoma.
most times it is a porch with a wooden floor,and i can jack up the floor enough to remove the brick and relay with fresh mud.where i cant jack up the floor,i remove a few brick at a time and replace them and move on down until i have all the bad brick and mortar replaced.

like luka says,pictures help when asking questions like this here.

__________________
life is short,do your masonry naked!!
http://ok.local.yahoo.biz/knabemasonry/index.html