Effervescence on new brickwork

[nedflanders]

Hi,
Had this new wall built along the front of our house/pavement. Lovely job, but a few weeks later the salts are seeping out and completely spoiling it. I phoned the builder, and also looked online for a solution.
Both said, scrub, hose, detergent wash, hose... Well I did that very thoroughly, and it looked okay to start with, (but it was wet) but a month later, it's showing again, now we're getting some dry weather.

Question: Do I need to do this more than once?

Somebody mentioned 'brick acid'. Is that Muriatic Acid? Might that do the trick? If so, (or not!) any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks.

 

[joe-90]

Muriatic acid is a name given to hydrochloric acid for some daft reason.

Yes it will get rid of it but it will come back again.

 

[noseall]

We are officially in efflorescence season.

Conditions are perfect for the first 'blooms' of the year.

Get used to it. They will do this a few times until the salts are gone. It is nowt to do with the construction rather it is the bricks themselves.

Some bricks have a higher rating than others and there ratings are sometimes listed by the manufacturer.

 

[^woody^]

Do not try and wash it. Wetting causes the salts to be reabsorbed and then to emerge more so on drying. Dry brush only, but even that won't do much.

Did your builders cover the bricks to keep them dry before and during construction, and especially prevented the top of the wall getting wet before the capping was laid?

 

[noseall]

Did your builders cover the bricks to keep them dry before and during construction, and especially prevented the top of the wall getting wet before the capping was laid?

You avin a larf Woods! I haven't seen a dry brick, or indeed, seen conditions that would lead to a brick drying since before November.

We have got mouths to feed you know!

 

[^woody^]

I did not mean kiln-dried

 

[limerockconstruction]

As brickies the last 6 months has been pretty tough for keeping things dry....but as noseall says people have had to keep working.

On one of the extension we are building at the moment we have been fortunate enough to keep things really dry, but the salts seem worse than ever - it seems like silly season for it at the moment.

a) it will die down over time, and b) It always adds character anyway

 

[wizbongre]

I guess the important question is - other than the aesthetics, I'm assuming the efflorescence does no harm?

(6 year old extension on our new house has it all over at the moment - doesn't really bother me as long as it isn't harmful.)

 

[limerockconstruction]

No harm at all

 

[wizbongre]

No harm at all

That's what I thought thanks - I can carry on ignoring it

 

[noseall]

I did not mean kiln-dried

No. What you meant was that builders should demand all the dry packs (if there are any) of bricks when buying from a merchant even if that means asking them to shift a few tonnes of bricks in the process?

Whilst i agree Woodfilla that you can give it your best efforts, this Winter has seen some shocking weather.

 

[^woody^]

Many packs now come shrink wrapped, but even so, when stacked, many remain dryish even with a lot of rain

If is the total saturation which needs to be avoided, and much of this comes after the bricks have been loaded out, or walls part built and not covered.

It is the soaking wet bricks being built into the wall which cause most of the efflorescence.

Covering and recovering/uncovering is a bit of a pain, and there may not be anything available on site to cover them with, so many people don't bother, or just make a token gesture to keep the bricks just dry enough to lay.

But it really isn't that hard. It's also a good sign of a good tradesman IMO, to see a lot of polythene and stuff covered up

 

[joe-90]

I've never seen bricks with efflorescence that aren't mortared up.

Where does it come from? Bricks don't contain limestone.

 

[^woody^]

The salts in the clay come to the surface and then migrate to the face or along the mortar/brick interface and into the mortar

I't a phenomenon (do do, de do do) so can be rare in stacked bricks