How do I fill this hole.

[ruggiero]

I found this big hole in the laundry room. It is an old tenement flat and the hole was probably made when they first installed the new drainage pipe.

It's quite deep as you can see and what you see on the right are the leftover bricks that were just left there.

Is it OK to fill it so to make the wall flat and paint over? If so, would expanding foam work?

Thanks!

 

[Tigercubrider]

Is there any chance of rodents? Is that a soil pipe? Scale?

I’d fill the hole with mortar and some brick debris. Use a stick/bit of wood to tamp mortar and brick into the hole. Can you get to the other side? You can get quick set mortar in a pack about the size of a bag of sugar.
Some expanding foam will work but any rodent will simply bite through it. It also has a tendency to expand more than expected and you kind of need to access both sides.

 

[ruggiero]

It is a soil pipe. As far as I know there are not issues with rodent. I am on the second floor and the other side is the stairwell.

It feels like I need to call a builder. It might be too complex for me and I don't want to risk damaging stuff.

 

[endecotp]

It feels like I need to call a builder. It might be too complex for me and I don't want to risk damaging stuff.

Honestly the ready-mixed mortar @Tigercubrider mentions is easier to use (without mess) than expanding foam. There are so many ways to get foam in you hair etc. etc.

 

[^woody^]

Scrunch up some steel mesh and put that in as a rodent barrier and then just fill it (from the back first) with expanding foam. Dampen the surfaces first. You can extend the filling tube if need be.

If you release the foam slowly it will be denser when it sets and it expands less. Also a water mist spray will speed up setttting.

 

[noseall]

You can extend the filling tube if need be.

You can double them up with a bit of jiggery pokery, but tape the join or it can pop off.

 

[Tigercubrider]

Watch out for the expanding foam coming out in the stairway.
A colleague at work hung out of a window to foam around a pipe only to discover the following morning that she’d dumped loads of foam ont her back step. She ended up having glued her back door to the step.
Have a little practice first.