Karl Ginifer
paul has covered everything when snow and ice have clear get a pencil and push it into joint if goes through easily have it rebuilt if resistance is there will be able to rake out joint and re point
I am currently having extension built and have noticed frozen mortar
Posted by johnny , on
I am currently having extension built and have noticed frozen mortar and blown joints and cracks between joints and bricks, why has this happened?
Paul Whitehead
Bricks should not be laid unless the temperature is at least 4 degrees. They should certainly not have been laid (outdoors) over the past couple of weeks with temps hitting sub zero. The symptoms you have described are the result of building in freezing conditions. Adding frost-proofers and covering walls with hessian might have helped, but only to a point. If the bricks have bonded ok, you might get away with scraping out and re-pointing, but if it was me I would request that the affected walls be rebuilt to be on the safe side.
Paul Whitehead
You can actually lay bricks below 4 degrees. 1 or 2 degrees is ok as long as the temperature is rising, which i assume is not the case here.
