01_Brickwall repair A crack was running throughout the parapet and passed the lintel of the front door, causing water damage to the ceiling in the hallway.
02_Brickwall cornice The crack has been previously patched with cement render and some sealant, which did not fix the problem.
03_Cornice repair
04_Cornice repair Water and algae combined with the cement render from the previous fix accelerated the degradation of the original lime render.
05_Cornice repair We removed render, mortar and bricks to the point where we found a healthy wall structure.
06_Cornice repair After removing degraded render and mortar, the crack was washed out and filled with a liquid slurry of graded sands and hydraulic lime, mixed on-site.
06a_Paraped repair It is crucial not to use cement-based mortars and renders on historical buildings: cement-based mortars and renders are incompatible with lime-based historic building materials. Cement-based mortars and renders over time set too hard. This hardness and subsequent inflexibility of cement render cannot accommodate movement in the brick wall because it is essentially an inflexible sheet. Additionally, cement is loaded with soluble salts that lead to unsightly efflorescence over time and destroy the historical materials with each solution-crystallisation cycle.
07_Paraped repair Preparation work for the helical stainless-steel rods to be embedded into the wall structure
09_Paraped repair We closed the cuts with a site mixed mortar consisting of various graded sands and hydraulic lime.
10_Cornice repair Reconstruction of the profile with the same site mixed render
11_Paraped repair The repair is concluded by applying a correctly tinted top coat render. To the left of our repair work, you can see white patches on the previously used top coat render: an unmistakable sign of efflorescence due to cement-based render. This is unsightly and will lead to a premature disintegration of the render structure.
12 Paraped repair The finished job
13 Paraped repair
Brickwall Crack Repair
Location: Windsor
Building Type: Heritage, residential
Budget: $9’000
The parapet of this heritage brickhouse was cracked and caused water damage to the ceiling in the hallway.
To fix the water leak, we needed to stabilise and repair the brick wall before we could restore the facade elements with the proper materials.
