As you can see from the picture, I have an approx. 7″ x 7″ hand hewn beam over the top of the window. On top of this beam is another beam that runs from the front of the house to the back of the house. The brick under the ends of the beam has cracked and crushed at about a 45 back to the window. I’m going to pull the beam out and replace it with a new header(what and how yet to be determined). What I’m looking for is any ideas on how to fix the brick so the new header has something solid to sit on. I was thinking of cutting away all the brick down to the bottom of the window and putting in a 4×4 or something similar. But cutting out the second course of brick will be hard and tricky. Not sure I want to tackle that.
Don
Replies
Don,
GEt a good mason to tear out the damaged section ar brick and replace them, then install a new header although a new steel angle iron would be a better choice.
Mark
Prof,
Thanks, but I'd like to avoid that. I also think replacing what failed may not be a good idea. I dont know, it may be fine. Also in the pic. The white with the red is plastic bags stuck in a hole where the brick deteriorated.
What do you think of using silicone as a mortar replacement in this situation. It will be taking some weight.
Don
Edited 12/22/2002 9:50:10 PM ET by Don C.
I can't tell much of anything from the picture but your description indicates an overloaded header from transfering the load of something above through a beam onto the window header. That is what is causing the bricks to fail unless the wrong bricks were used in the first place.
So you seem to need an engineer and a qualified mason rather than answers to these other trim questions. Putting wood wedges in mortar to provide a nailer for trim is, IMO, more likely to cause failure because the wood absorbiung moisture from the air in an indefinite number of cycles will weaken and spread the joints. This fact could have contributed to the current failure so don't repeat it. The PL Premium is a polyurethene construction adhesive that will weld almost any two materials together but You should not depend on it or silicone for compressive strength. If all you were doing was trying to glue wedges back, it would be an ideal product to use but you have a lot morre going on.
You need to temporarily support the center beam and repair the wall right. Short cuts can get people hurt.
.
Excellence is its own reward!
"The first rule is to keep an untroubled spirit.
The second is to look things in the face and know them for what they are."
--Marcus Aurelius
Piffin,
I guess I should have paraphrased this. The house is either 140 or 160 years old. The wedges were common practice for nailers at the time. While the mortar was wet, the masons would insert the wedges to some predetermined schedule.
You are right about the picture, and should update it. It is all cleaned out now, and ready for the lentil to come out. I do have a 3 ton hydraulic jack and some braces put up to support the beam. The lentil wouldn't budge until I took some of the pressure off of it from the beam running perpendicular over it. All the second floor floor joists are notched over this beam.
Don
Quick and easy answer......if I understand the situation...there's no right answer you're going to get from someone that's not there.
If I understand right...this is double brick construction. Brick exterior and a brick interior.
I used to work on these old places all the time. We did lotsa of repair work on row houses that took up a city block. Even on those units...what was done on the first one couldn't be assumed as what they did on the oposite end...as far as construction went. I'd guess materials on hand dictated how and why.
But all the basic's apply. Gotta tear out and replace what's shot. Gotta put back what ya take out. Gotta hold it up temp as strong or stronger while you're the one it could fall on.
A lot of time you have to step back and see the structure as a whole.....the whole wall is providing the strength...not just the area dircetly below the header.
Those nailer blocks would have lasted another lifetime if they were protected. Same with the soft brick. Moisture is what started the problems. It's tough to know how to support the upper bricks when you are looking at it....impossible to know over the net!
We've gone so far as completely supporting the entire upstairs just to reframe and reduce a window.....because on the one next door.....the simple repair demo revealed that the second floor had completely pulled away from the bearing wall....and was jusy floating in midair..waiting for the next waterbed to send the back wall of a row of houses down to the alley. The brick was fine...as far as holding itself up....but we didn't want to disturb anything more than we had to.....so a new bearing wall was framed inside the brick...and transfered down to the basement.
The idea is to disturb as little as possible, while addressing the problem. You start scraping all the soft mortar and they'll have a pile of brick left at the end of the day where their house used to stand!
My...I'd figure a way to support the brick.....and working with as small a section as possible at a time.....I'd remove the existing wood header and replace with the same dimension wood header.....it that'll carry the load. Repair it as it was build.
Glue the nailers back in.......I like the concrete caulk for small repairs...when ya have something it'll stick to. If not......mortar with a grout bag. Silicone ain't gonna do ya much good. Const. adhesive dries harder than silicone...but mortar is what was there before...so what's that tell ya.
We've even made forms and cast sacrete to make for solid bearing where the old brick just kept coming out. What ever it takes......it's all different.
Sounds like the whole place will need a good repointing to address the moisture problems when alls said and done.
Have fun. JeffBuck Construction Pittsburgh,PA
Fine Carpentery.....While U Waite
Boy, whenever I go into an old house or barn and see a major support beam thats been cut or replaced, I cringe. The builders of that time knew what they were doing, witness the house lasting for 160 years. However, if additions or other improvements are on house adding weight, or bricks just failed from old age or moisture, could see wall failing. Me personally, I would try to save the beam if could, I love those big old beams.
Right, it sounds like the failure is in the bricks and mortar, not the header beam..
Excellence is its own reward!
"The first rule is to keep an untroubled spirit.
The second is to look things in the face and know them for what they are."
--Marcus Aurelius