Blocking up a back door

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Blocking up a back door
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Ty Gwyn

Joined: 22 Sep 2010
Posts: 4613
Location: Lampeter

Posted: Thu Nov 22, 18 1:07 pm Post subject:

Bull nose bricks,also used on window sills,also were available with a double nose for use as copping on a 9 inch wall,and of the quality of engineering bricks for hard wearing.

When I started doing my apprenticeship as a brickie in 1970 it was only felt damp course we used then,but when I moved to a bigger firm on building sites in late 73 to finish my apprenticeship it was all plastic then.

That was my recommendation about taking out the reveals of the doorway,the old felt goes brittle and once disturbed there`s a chance its not doing its job.

History of bricks is interesting,the old colliery in Merthyr my butty and myself were trying to re-open had a retaining wall of Stourbridge bricks,which I thought strange regarding the huge number of brickworks in South Wales considering a lot of the old collieries had its own brickworks for use of its fireclay waste,doing a bit of searching found out that the Stourbridge brick company in the West Midlands had purchased a block of land if I remember correctly near Pontypool for its fireclay source for this type of brick,in-fact they were more blocks than bricks.

sgt.colon

Joined: 27 Jul 2009
Posts: 7380
Location: Just south of north.

Posted: Thu Nov 22, 18 1:21 pm Post subject:
Thanks for that Ty. I will be removing any reveals that there is around the doorway. It's a shame bricks aren't made locally any more and it gave them character to the place they were local to.

dpack

Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 46235
Location: yes

Posted: Thu Nov 22, 18 2:11 pm Post subject:

the old bitumin dpc is a bit fragile best replaced if disturbed.
ty is right about exposing the reveals.

while you have the cavity exposed tis worth checking for any obvious bridges and dealing with them if needs be. a moment raking a blob of muck out saves wondering what the damp spot is about later.

plastic dpc is slippery stuff, i find a few dabs of solvent based gripfill on the footings keep it in place while you get the first bricks onto it

sgt.colon

Joined: 27 Jul 2009
Posts: 7380
Location: Just south of north.

Posted: Thu Nov 22, 18 2:41 pm Post subject:
Thanks for that DPack. It's always good to get advice from experienced peeps, especially when you've never done it yourself before.

dpack

Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 46235
Location: yes

Posted: Thu Nov 22, 18 4:39 pm Post subject:

yer welcome

while you are getting prepped:

arrange a spot board for your mortar to be at waist height, it saves knees and back when buttering etc.

arrange means to mix and clean mixing area between mixes

learn about bricklaying mortars and play about with small amounts before going for an hours worth of mix,
a bit of practice with the sand and bricks you are using might be a very good investment in time and mats, ( so long as practice bits dont set just wash the bricks for reuse )
hint you need a mix that moves when you want it to and stays put when you want it to (squished out from between the courses 2 and 3 down is really frustrating

)

good mixing is necessary for good buttering and good lay.

re tools :

a pump up plant sprayer is well handy for damping and cleaning

as it is a patch a strait edge is probably more use than a bubble or string, use it to work the courses and faces to match the existing on all 4 sides of the hole

if you have one a vacuum cleaner that will do blow is ace for cleaning crevices etc, clean matters when mating new to old.

i know eye protection isnt traditional among brickies but a blob of mortar in the eye is pretty nasty, i use comfy but light duty ppe specs. goggles are a pita for bricking ( use em for cutting , cleaning, ragging out stuff with a breaker etc as usual )

hand cream.

sgt.colon

Joined: 27 Jul 2009
Posts: 7380
Location: Just south of north.

Posted: Thu Nov 22, 18 4:46 pm Post subject:

Thanks for all that kind sir.

Our builder is a bit behind so I'm unable to do what I wanted to this weekend. So I will be out there practising my mixes and so forth.

I have the lightweight glasses and some goggles and dust mask for when I'm cutting my stones and blocks.

I don't have a vacuum that blows but I don't have a couple of cans of compressed air.

I pick the last of my supplies up tonight, now including a water bottle and so once people have stopped stopping me I'll be good to go.

Mistress Rose

Joined: 21 Jul 2011
Posts: 15984

Posted: Fri Nov 23, 18 7:38 am Post subject:

Ty Gwyn, are your bricks creamy coloured if they are made of fire clay? All ours in this area are red, or occasionally black where they are burnt. The old workhouse in the village (sadly demolished and replaced by a metal factory type building) had black glazed tiles alternating end on with red full face ones and looked pretty good. It was a factory by the time I knew it, so no connection with the past useage.

sgt.colon

Joined: 27 Jul 2009
Posts: 7380
Location: Just south of north.

Posted: Fri Nov 23, 18 11:43 am Post subject:
I've looked on the bricks and there is no name on there. They aren't even indented on the top and bottom of the brick where a name would normally be.

Ty Gwyn

Joined: 22 Sep 2010
Posts: 4613
Location: Lampeter

Posted: Fri Nov 23, 18 1:04 pm Post subject:

The only brickworks that I can think of at the moment that made yellow/cream bricks was the old Penwyllt brickworks at the top of the Swansea Valley,and they were Silica bricks ,there was also a Gunpowder factory nearby.

All other brick works I am aware of made either red engineering bricks or reddish black common bricks,but there were so many in the area.

I have a pile of old yellow bricks here, when I had several loads of rubble when they renovated the old school in Lampeter,but I`m sure they are Midlands bricks,i will check the name later,they are a soft sandy brick and deep frogged,then again I have plain old yellow bricks with no frog and no name but a harder brick,when they are plain with no name its difficult to find their source,there are sites on the internet dedicated to bricks and brickworks ,I tried to search the old bricks I found when I pulled out a grate in this house,i went back in the wall to the 6th grate that had been here,these old bricks were plain,no frogs or names,a thinner brick than norm and brown and purple coloured with a silica content and very hard,but my eyes went square in the end from the massive amounts of different brick companies to search through.

dpack

Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 46235
Location: yes

Posted: Fri Nov 23, 18 1:47 pm Post subject:
odd you should say that, the late 1940's fireplace here had an antique brick backfill two sets of 16th/17c thin wide and frogless bout a hundred plus lots of half ones a victorian railway brick and quite a few random 18th c ones

dpack

Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 46235
Location: yes

Posted: Fri Nov 23, 18 2:25 pm Post subject:
afaik there was a york brick industry quite early but i suspect the most of the 16/17th c stuff around york is flemish. ballast cargo to us , wool to them. once there was a decent coal supply (18th c ) down the coast from newcastle and later from there and s yorks by train in the 19th c local brickmaking replaced imports ( we are not short of clay ) but we were short of fuel.

Ty Gwyn

Joined: 22 Sep 2010
Posts: 4613
Location: Lampeter

Posted: Fri Nov 23, 18 2:30 pm Post subject:

If them old bricks you had had matched these I wouldn't have minded having some,i intended using some of the bricks I had here to build the quoins of a new fireplace inset,firstly I intended to use stone,but after gathering up and sorting out I didn't have enough decent stones for the quoins,so decided to brick the quoins and stone infill,well with all the different old bricks I have here i couldn't find enough to match,an even using alternate different coloured bricks ,the thicknesses didn't correspond,so it looks like I need to purchase new bricks .

Ty Gwyn

Joined: 22 Sep 2010
Posts: 4613
Location: Lampeter

Posted: Fri Nov 23, 18 2:33 pm Post subject:
The foreign bricks brought in as ballast I had not thought of,good point.

Mistress Rose

Joined: 21 Jul 2011
Posts: 15984

Posted: Sat Nov 24, 18 8:10 am Post subject:
In the 17th century, bricks were real luxury goods. Henry VIII built a palace of them they were regarded as so special, and there are any number of 'Red House's' around indicating they were rather special as built of brick.

Ty Gwyn

Joined: 22 Sep 2010
Posts: 4613
Location: Lampeter

Posted: Sat Nov 24, 18 12:48 pm Post subject:
Cwmdu bricks from Swansea were a cream colour.

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