How to make good this old brick wall

[leoga]

Hi All,

I moved into a Georgian house last year and am slowly undoing the previous occupant's DIY disasters. I'm no expert, but he's given me a low watermark to beat.

One of my tasks is fixing an old chimney wall on the first floor. Prior to these holes below, there was a solid, off-white putty in them and I've removed most of it carefully. My plan is to paint a much thicker white paint over it.

But before that, what's the best thing to fill these holes with? Some aren't small. In the second picture, you can see there's an entire brick missing on the side.

Not having done this before, do I find a similar-sized old brick, chisel it to size and then fix into place with whatever filler you'd recommend above?

All help welcome and appreciated!

 

[blup]

If its georgian presumably its grade 2 listed minimum, not these but some internal works require approval. That said find some reclaimed bricks of the right size and cut to size and fit. Older properties used lime mortar.

Blup

 

[leoga]

If its georgian presumably its grade 2 listed minimum, not these but some internal works require approval. That said find some reclaimed bricks of the right size and cut to size and fit. Older properties used lime mortar.

Blup

Thanks for this! It's not listed although neighbouring properties are. Ultimately given that we'll be painting over it, I'm not looking for a 100% authentic restoration in terms of techniques.

Is there anything simpler than lime mortar to use and is cutting bricks easy?

 

[blup]

You could build it up with masonry repair cement filler, use an angle grinder if cutting bricks

BLUP

 

[leoga]

Superb. Thank you!

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

I don't know if this applies, but...

I had a wall with very soft and crumbly mortar joints, that needed painting. Any attempt to paint, failed because the mortar surface just came away. The way I managed to solve it, to paint it, was by mixing up a very thin mix of finish plaster, which I painted on. That dried, stabilised the surface, filled many of the small holes, and made it possible to paint it.