Chimney Mortar Repair

olyteddy

So, what do I fill these voids with? I assume they all need to be cleaned first.

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raskolnikov

Oly,
What is it we're looking at, I havn't seen close-ups like that since my last visit to my dentist.

D.

Tscarborough

Those are scratch faced modular brick with eroded white mortar. Any type N white mortar will fix them just fine, although you should grind the joints to an even depth.

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It ain't Rocket Science unless you are building rockets.

DJ9222

The mason that did that brick should take up another trade...lol

olyteddy

It's been there since 1918...

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naptown CR

Be careful with what you point up with. A modern high strength mortar may do more damage than doing nothing. Clean up the joints well and be careful that looks like old Borden brick and is a beotch to get these days.

Tscarborough

Robinson brick has a pretty good match for it.

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It ain't Rocket Science unless you are building rockets.

lukachuki

Boral Brick has an almost perfect match as well although they may ship em in from robinson or elsewhere. They call it red vertex.

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

Less with the jaw more with the paw!

Michael Olding

Yeah we use those vertical score around here frequently.

1918 Hmmm... could be cement based or not. Hard to say with out testing.

It looks like a grinding and pointing is in order and then stain those unsightly pieces of 'whatever' that's hanging on the brick faces.

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Masonry repair expert - structural, restorations, tuck pointing, rebuilding, staining etc.

olyteddy

Well, I fixed it up last weekend. Got a 3/8" cold chisel and chucked it up in my ancient Skil 599 hammer drill (hammer only mode), cleared out the loose stuff, and pointed with Type N. I decided I don't want to be a Mason, except maybe for the secret handshake and that weird 'eye floating above the pyramid' thing. Too much work...catfood size bags that weigh 60 pounds or more...all that dust...the cleanup...etc. I think you guys do great work though.

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brickpoint

The traditional way for pointing chimneys is to rake out the joints to a depth of at least 25mm (1 inch), you can use a small cold chisel for this or an angle grinder but the mess caused with an angle grinder has to be consisered as someone will have to clean up. The best mix for the pointing is a 6:1:1 mortar (6 sand : 1 hydrated lime : 1 portland cement). hope this is useful to you. thanks