Digging out for patio and found missing bricks

[DIY92]

I’ve started digging out to lay a patio and have found a strip of ‘missing’ bricks below the damp proof course.
I haven’t dug out to the corner yet as unsure if this is a big structural issue or not?

The brick laying pattern looks like it would require half brick. Would laying new bricks to fill the gaps be the correct thing to do?

 

[JohnD]

Is there a drain nearby?

I ask because long-term drain leaks can wash away the lime mortar in old walls, leaving the bricks loose and the joints full of mud. It's my practice to hose out the mud and repack the joints with cement mortar, while repairing the drain, but it looks to me as if somebody has actually taken the bricks away. Or maybe it was just built like that, which I find very strange. Perhaps there was a mistake in laying out which the builder hid.

It's quite difficult to pack mortar into the top gap, and it will sag, but a pointing gun will do it.

Work in small sections to minimise the unsupported span.

 

[DIY92]

Is there a drain nearby?

I ask because long-term drain leaks can wash away the lime mortar in old walls, leaving the bricks loose and the joints full of mud. It's my practice to hose out the mud and repack the joints with cement mortar, while repairing the drain, but it looks to me as if somebody has actually taken the bricks away. Or maybe it was just built like that, which I find very strange.

It's quite difficult to pack mortar into the top gap, and it will sag, but a pointing gun will do it.

There is a drain around the corner.

I have just dug a little deep to try and find the foundations but again there doesn’t seem anything below the lowest bricks.

 

[JohnD]

I think you need to stop digging and start supporting.

If it was me, I would dig a single 1-ft square pit, fill it with concrete, hose the mud out of the joints above it and pack with mortar, build a brick pillar, then do another a metre away, and repeat, until I was satisfied there would not be a collapse, then fill in the rest of the brickwork.

 

[Diver Fred]

When was the house built?

 

[A Trowel]

You have just found the spread footings, stop worrying

 

[DIY92]

I think you need to stop digging and start supporting.

If it was me, I would dig a single 1-ft square pit, fill it with concrete, hose the mud out of the joints above it and pack with mortar, build a brick pillar, then do another a metre away, and repeat, until I was satisfied there would not be a collapse, then fill in the rest of the brickwork.

Cheers for the reply, I’m gonna fill below the bricks with concrete and get a builder round to have a proper look at it before I do anymore

When was the house built?

House was built in 1930’s, but unsure when the extension at the back of house was built.

 

[DIY92]

You have just found the spread footings, stop worrying

Haha complete novice here, so not sure what I should worry about or not.

Any advice on reinforcing and bricking up as discussed above?

 

[A Trowel]

All unnecessary

 

[DIY92]

All unnecessary

That’s reassuring at least

 

[stuart45]

It used to happen quite a lot on site years ago, when there was only 9 inches of concrete and quite a few courses of brickwork to get up to damp. When you got to the 1st face work course the lines got strung up back on the profiles and the brickwork was reset to the lines. The face bricks were often overhanging the footing courses, but it got backfilled before the CoW came round.

 

[Charlie George]

As above no

It used to happen quite a lot on site years ago, when there was only 9 inches of concrete and quite a few courses of brickwork to get up to damp. When you got to the 1st face work course the lines got strung up back on the profiles and the brickwork was reset to the lines. The face bricks were often overhanging the footing courses, but it got backfilled before the CoW came round.

Still happens, but not by me

 

[DIY92]

It used to happen quite a lot on site years ago, when there was only 9 inches of concrete and quite a few courses of brickwork to get up to damp. When you got to the 1st face work course the lines got strung up back on the profiles and the brickwork was reset to the lines. The face bricks were often overhanging the footing courses, but it got backfilled before the CoW came round.

Cheers for the reply.
So just a few cut corners during the build, nothing majorly structural?
Backfilling with MOT and laying paving as usual should be fine then?

 

[stuart45]

The MOT will be quite solid.

 

[^woody^]

Lol, how long has that house been up, and all of a sudden it's a panic?