seeping bricks!!!

[Warehousewomble]

Evening folks, and happy new year

My family has recently had a new garage built by a local builder, but now the wet weather has arrived we find that the red bricks on the exposed side of the garage are letting through an awful lot of moisture, so much in fact that its dripping down and dampening the lovely new bench I made. Now the builder coated the block wall on the sheltered side with a weather proofing spray, but not the red brick wall in any way. Could the water be seeping through the mortar, and should the builder have mixed a water proofing agent like medusa with the cement? I just want to get my facts straight before we talk to the builder. I mean, one of the things my dad said to him was "I want a dry garage" but it's anything but dry.

You'll have to excuse my ignorance of brickwork, I'm more knowledgable on metalwork

 

[legs-akimbo]

Is it a single skin or brick and block construction with a cavity.

 

[Warehousewomble]

Sorry, I should have made it clearer, It's a single thickness of brick with no cavity.

 

[legs-akimbo]

Ahhh well there you go then, 4" against driving incessant rain, no contest.
You could always render with a waterproofer additive.

 

[Warehousewomble]

Fudge!.

So this waterproofer additive, is it something that we can spray onto the brickwork? Would that be similar to the stuff he sprayed onto the cinderblock walls when he built them, or does it have to be applied during building?

cheers

 

[masona]

does it have to be applied during building?

Yes, it's a liquid additive to mortar, available from most building merchants

See this for one of many brands.

 

[Warehousewomble]

Cheers Masona, I've bookmarked that site for further drooling

I see that stuff is suitbale for pointing. Do you think it might sort the problem If I raked out half an inch depth of mortar from the joints and repointed with cement made using the additive? Or does it have to be through the entire mortar mix?

Could it be the bricks themselves rather than the mortar that is letting the water through? I mean bricks are porous aren't they?

A guy at work said I should try a ronseal masonry weatherproofer. Have you guys had any dealings with this stuff and know if its any good?

thank for all the feedback

 

[masona]

I see that stuff is suitbale for pointing. Do you think it might sort the problem If I raked out half an inch depth of mortar from the joints and repointed with cement made using the additive? Or does it have to be through the entire mortar mix?

As legs-akimbo said best to render the whole wall instead of just repointing because your bricks are porous and a single skin wall.

Could it be the bricks themselves rather than the mortar that is letting the water through? I mean bricks are porous aren't they?

Common or engineer brick are good for a single wall as they are less porous. It can comes through bad pointing but I would've thought a awful lot of rain for it to seeps through the brick unless they are really porous. Can you see where the rain getting in ?

A guy at work said I should try a ronseal masonry weatherproofer. Have you guys had any dealings with this stuff and know if its any good?

I don't do much rendering now, legs-akimbo will know more about it.