Black bricks, what does it all mean?? ooo er!

[WEIRDFISH]

I m new here and about to embark on a bit of a project so I thought it may be a good idea to join up!
I have a house that I am buying but I have some discolouration on the external wall! the house is in a rural location, two, 2up 2down farm hands cottages in one, built from red brick, in a dry location, with no nearby water courses.
the end wall which is east facing has some bricks that have turned black and you could be forgiven for thinking they had been affected by a chimney as they follow that sort of course up the wall in 2 places. There is no chimney inside the building at this wall though! The building has many holes drilled along at DPC level so I assume it has had some form of treatment recently. The house is 102 years old. Any ideas what has turned the bricks black?
Thanks
Jim

 

[JohnD]

might be old tar/creosote distillates from wood or coal fires, especially if the chimney does not have a sound flue. in this case the chimney might have a lean (towards the wind) where the mortar has been attacked by the acid flue gases. If bad, the chimney will have to be taken down and rebuit.

Another possibility is black mildew if it is damp, e,g, from a gas fire venting up the chimney and the steam condensing in it. If you put bleach on mildew it will be killed and clean off easily when dry.

edited:
sorry you said no chimney. if there never has been one, then suspect damp. Can also be from leaking gutters or cistern overflow pipes.

 

[NS215]

maybe another house that was next door that has been taken down and its from inside the chimney from that house ?

 

[Olitaylor]

Hi wierdfish,

I've recently bought a new house of a similar age, with a similar blackening of some bricks around the front door. Before I purchased the house I got an expert to test the house for Damp. They recorded higher levels of damp in the wall around the Front door. The suggested solution was to add some terracotta airbricks above the DPC to ventilate the cavity, and clear the cavity of any rubble.

(I've assumed they know what they're talking about, so please anyone shout if this sounds odd!)