Repairing a Break in a Brick Wall

Causes

• Several factors can contribute to the development of breaks in brick walls. If the wall was built with an inadequate foundation, the weight of the wall itself can compress the soil underneath it over time, eventually leading to a shift in part of the wall and a resulting break between the bricks. Inadequate mortaring or inferior quality mortar can also contribute to this problem. If the mortar holding the bricks together is weak, the wall is more susceptible to separation. Unexpected movement, including tremors, heavy construction next to the wall or getting bumped by a vehicle can also cause breaks.

Technique

• The method that is required to repair a break in a wall depends on the severity of the break. If part of the wall has actually moved, creating a gap between two parts of the wall, you can decide to either patch and stabilize the wall or to disassemble one part of the wall and reassemble it in its original location. The latter option is clearly far more labor-intensive, so in most cases it's preferable to patch the wall. This will leave an odd-looking joint where the break was, but with proper reinforcement and mortaring it can make the wall as strong as it was originally.

Materials

• The type of brick that is in the wall depends on when the wall was built. Walls from before the mid-20th century were built with a different kind of brick and different mortar. Historically accurate repairs should take this into account. Early bricks were larger, and early mortar was made of a lime-based compound, making it more flexible than modern cement-based mortar. Mixing the new with the old can create complications--for example, when one part of the mortar moves with the weather and the other part doesn't. If the break in the wall has damaged or broken some of the bricks, these bricks should be chiseled out and replaced with new bricks that match their look as closely as possible.

Tools

• Unlike many fields that have changed drastically due to new technologies, the tools used in masonry and brickwork are nearly identical to those used hundreds of years ago. To fix a break in a brick wall, all you need is a trowel, a hawk (a flat metal pan with a handle on the bottom that holds mortar), a brick hammer and a putty knife.