TL;DR
What's best-practice for adding a second-skin of brick to a single-skin wall?
I don't want to create a cavity wall but rather wish to reinforce the existing single skin which is in a very poor state.
I was originally toying with using some Helifix StarTies (or similar... there seem to be a few brands) and joining one end of the wall using SabreFix Wall Starter Kit to the English-bond section of wall where the single-skin makes a butt-joint (in red).
However, could I in-place of the StarTies use more of the SabreFixs in the positions in blue?
https://photos.app.goo.gl/HZxqvvU9o11ZFWfN8
The advantage of this is that I'd imagine this would provide better reinforcement at the cost (possibly) of the SabreFix making the vertical mortar bond between the two leaves thicker than strictly necessary. It also avoids with having to deal with the problem of staggering the leaves vertically such that the StarTies require... not sure how I'd do that best... splitting bricks laterally doesn't sound that easy
Thoughts?
(the wall is still plumb - just lens distortion)
Background
We have a garage (detached from our house, but semi-detached from next-door's matching garage) that has a damp problem. The damp was caused by the previous owners building a patio banked against one flank such that the patio level was 50cm above the slab/dpc. I have now excavated back below DPC and intend to implement a Dry Area scheme as illustrated here (the leftmost side of the picture under the first-occurrence of the word 'litter') i.e. such that there's a channel's edge is inline with the green-line.
Garage construction
1920's English-bond London brick, with lime mortar (probably... it's certainly relatively soft and I understand Portland cement-based mortar didn't come in until the very tail-end of the decade). Concrete slab and hot-poured bitumen DPC. Whatever the original render was, the owners recently used a cementious render on the walls.
The roof is a rather OTT steeply pitched tiled affair, and it originally had rafters, lathe/plaster ceiling which have recently been removed - the spread of the roof is (I hope!) largely borne by the hips themselves.
The gotcha is that the front of the garage originally had an integral adjoining brick shed extending about 1/3 of the way the length of the garage that was demolished leaving only a single-skin wall (i.e. originally the shed would have provided lateral stability) Where this has been done the wall is only single-skin, and it's in a sorry state:
Where the wall thickness steps-down there is a large vertical crack though which daylight can just be seen now that I've removed the render. The face of the brickwork, many of the bricks and the mortar itself looks pretty dreadful on the outside particularly, but also on the inside where moisture has soaked fully half-way up the wall (lateral penetration and trapped behind cracked cementious render.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/agUsvbr2qFsXWt4i9
What's best-practice for adding a second-skin of brick to a single-skin wall?
I don't want to create a cavity wall but rather wish to reinforce the existing single skin which is in a very poor state.
I was originally toying with using some Helifix StarTies (or similar... there seem to be a few brands) and joining one end of the wall using SabreFix Wall Starter Kit to the English-bond section of wall where the single-skin makes a butt-joint (in red).
However, could I in-place of the StarTies use more of the SabreFixs in the positions in blue?
https://photos.app.goo.gl/HZxqvvU9o11ZFWfN8
The advantage of this is that I'd imagine this would provide better reinforcement at the cost (possibly) of the SabreFix making the vertical mortar bond between the two leaves thicker than strictly necessary. It also avoids with having to deal with the problem of staggering the leaves vertically such that the StarTies require... not sure how I'd do that best... splitting bricks laterally doesn't sound that easy
Thoughts?
(the wall is still plumb - just lens distortion)
Background
We have a garage (detached from our house, but semi-detached from next-door's matching garage) that has a damp problem. The damp was caused by the previous owners building a patio banked against one flank such that the patio level was 50cm above the slab/dpc. I have now excavated back below DPC and intend to implement a Dry Area scheme as illustrated here (the leftmost side of the picture under the first-occurrence of the word 'litter') i.e. such that there's a channel's edge is inline with the green-line.
Garage construction
1920's English-bond London brick, with lime mortar (probably... it's certainly relatively soft and I understand Portland cement-based mortar didn't come in until the very tail-end of the decade). Concrete slab and hot-poured bitumen DPC. Whatever the original render was, the owners recently used a cementious render on the walls.
The roof is a rather OTT steeply pitched tiled affair, and it originally had rafters, lathe/plaster ceiling which have recently been removed - the spread of the roof is (I hope!) largely borne by the hips themselves.
The gotcha is that the front of the garage originally had an integral adjoining brick shed extending about 1/3 of the way the length of the garage that was demolished leaving only a single-skin wall (i.e. originally the shed would have provided lateral stability) Where this has been done the wall is only single-skin, and it's in a sorry state:
Where the wall thickness steps-down there is a large vertical crack though which daylight can just be seen now that I've removed the render. The face of the brickwork, many of the bricks and the mortar itself looks pretty dreadful on the outside particularly, but also on the inside where moisture has soaked fully half-way up the wall (lateral penetration and trapped behind cracked cementious render.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/agUsvbr2qFsXWt4i9
Last edited:
