Repairing a brick garden wall?

[dave163]

The brick wall in my garden is coming apart. It forms an L shape being in a corner and consists of 3m of half width (? technical term - a single course of bricks) and a further 3m of double width (ie two bricks side by side) with a pillar inbetween; it's about 80cm tall. The bricks must be 50 years old and some are blown from frostbite and starting to crumble. I had concrete coping slabs running along the top.

The concrete coping stones have worked loose and come off but try as I might I can't get the wretched things to go back. I've cleaned off all the old mortar, knocked off a couple of courses of bricks to remove the ones that were loose and on several occasions I've tried to re-lay the coping stones (using ready-mix mortar, OK I'm not a brickie I'm a DIY-er so didn't want to faff about experimenting with combinations of cement and sand). Each time however, the very next day the coping stones are off again and are just refusing to stick to the wall. It seems the bricks are soaking up moisture from the cement like a sponge and despite trying different levels of wetness in the mortar I just can't get the blasted concrete coping stones to stay put.

I've asked several local building firms to quote me to repair it and every single one has said they aren't interested as it's not a big enough job. So I have two options, keep on trying to repair myself or admit defeat and get a building firm to demolish the wall and rebuild. Being a tight git with a wall that superficially doesn't look too bad I'd prefer to fix it but am at the point of giving up. Can anyone suggest anything more I should try before I tear the wretched thing down and start again from scratch?

 

[mikeey84]

I would try using an sbr primer

That is, mix sbr (available from Wickes etc) with plain cement to from a consistency like double cream, then paint it on both the bricks and the bottom of the stones.

Whilst it is still damp, lay your mortar, and apply the stones.

This should help them adhere much better

 

[^woody^]

What you need to do is just brush and loose dust off and then dampen the wall and the coping.

Then lay the mortar - not flat but it needs to be furrowed (see images or videos on bricklaying) and high enough to allow you to push the coping down to a final 10mm bed thickness. And what you should do is put the joint on for the next copiing, and then slide the coping back and forth slightly and this creates suction and adherence of the mortar. Then give them a final tap or two to level and align them. Scrape the excess off below and on the joint, and wait a while until the joints are ready for pointing

Then dont touch them for several days else you will loosen them.