brick project assistance?

[Rodzilla]

if you need this done,i would be after him to start the chimney ASAP,it will be the harder job to complete at this time of year...the window area is small and can easily be tented over with plastic and heated to make for a reasonably warm and dry work area quite late into the year if necessary,and it shouldn't take very long to complete at any rate..the chimney may be another matter entirely,that's the real question mark..i honestly don't know

 

[roger2]

Woohooo! Something is moving on this project finally

Well, I am moving. I am getting started on the window area. I talked to my mason, asked his opinion about whether cold weather was a concern, and told him that I wanted to get moving on the window area. He is busy finishing up other projects, which I understand. It's that time of the year, no problem. But he came over and inspected my prep work, gave me a quick brick-laying 101, and dropped off some tools as well as sand and mortar for me to use. He is being a real stand-up guy.

Starting ASAP, because weather is looking good over the next few days, I am going to lay the bricks in the window area pictured earlier in this thread. The top of that section will have custom cut a limestone cap (instead of bricks) and my mason is going to set that, as well as the course of bricks just below the cap. But the project is officially in motion and I will be doing a crash course.

So...if anyone able to answer some questions it will be greatly appreciated. I will be searching on the internet as well of course.

First question - I have one brick, bottom course, that will be set directly on a metal flashing which I assume is aluminum. Pictured below. I had just brushed off mortar dust and wiped the flashing with a wet rag. My question is, does anything need to be done to the metal flashing to allow the mortar adhere to it? Any special type of cleaning agent that would help the mortar bond better?

 

[roger2]

Learned how to cut brick today. That bottom area requires several less-than-full-size brick to make the vent (not in the pictures) fit. Once I get above the vent, I will need, at most, one cut brick per course. I had to cut about 8 or so of various sizes today, a couple more than I will need, because once I have wet mud I don't want to have to take time out to cut bricks. So today I did a dry fit or the lower 3 or 4 courses with partial bricks as needed.

Hoping to be slinging mud tomorrow.

 

[roger2]

Just getting started.

Things are not lining up 100% as much as I would like because the metal crawl-space vent creates problems in both the horizontal and vertical directions. Also, on the lower courses where the vent is, I only had to remove a brick or two on either side of it, so there is not a lot of leeway to correct for errors. The original brick work was also very inconsistent in joint sizing, narrower here, wider there, for no apparent reason. And there are lots of places (not showing in the pic) where the original mortar simply had gaps and other non-sealed spots. The original craftsmanship was not great . Hopefully I can do at least as good, if not better, especially by the time I get to the top courses. But I can tell you...I am painfully slow at this, lol.

Can anyone offer suggestions on how to clean the white mortar residue off the faces of the bricks as shown below? Going forward I will try to be more careful about getting mortar where it shouldn't be. Actually, I was not aware it was this bad...the camera picked up a lot more than I was seeing live.

Should I wait to clean the brick faces until after the mortar joints cure? Or should I do something now?

 

[roger2]

update:

Here is the window area portion of the project completed. The chimney will wait until next spring and I will post a pic or two of the chimney work whenever my mason gets going on that part of the project.

The new bricks are a pretty good match for color although the texture is different. Also, I don't think it can easily be seen in the pic, but I used a concave joint in the new work instead of the rake joint in the original work. I have been told by a couple brick guys that the rake joint could very possibly be a contributor to the spalling issues we had because it allows water to sit on the top edge of the bricks.

My brick mason set the limestone cap and the first course of bricks directly beneath the cap. I did everything below that. The bricks on the top course were cut down in height in order to allow the limestone to fit. He also cleaned up the mortar staining mentioned in my previous post.

It is not perfect. But, although I definitely tend to be a perfectionist, I am pretty happy with the final result here. I got better as I went along, both in speed and alignment of the bricks as well as getting the mortar mixed right. On my first day I laid a grand total of one brick, and three the next day. And, I realized later, I was mixing the mortar too dry at first. On my "best" day I did 24 and by that time I believe I had the mortar pretty close to right, and my timing on finishing the joints had been worked out.

Brick laying is indeed an art, and one which I will never master because the work is too physically demanding.There is lots of room for improvement in this project, and I could point out many mistakes and places where alignment could be better. But the wall is solid and the joints have been finished fairly well to resist entrance of moisture. The mortar work on the top course, done by my mason, does not look any neater than mine, IMHO. He did do a great job of setting the cap, getting those two limestone pieces aligned and angled downward to allow water to drain.

Thanks to everyone for your input

 

[MacNoob]

That looks fantastic. Brickwork is a job I've never attempted.

 

[ETLS]

You have a very nice looking job there, for your very first attempt at laying brick you should be extremely proud of yourself.