Green is what is done… Red still needs to be done.
I’m finishing up the first half of our brick pointing project this week. I’m ready for this pointing to be over. Unfortunately, I’m only halfway there. Pointing really isn’t that bad other than it being hard on my body. As long as I’ve got my tunes on, I pretty much forget I’m doing it. I’m just ready to move onto other things like trim. Also it makes a mess throughout the house.
I’ve saved the best for last. I needed the surrounding bricks to be strong enough to hold themselves up when I took out nearly everything from the floor to the ceiling. I’ve been careful to leave a pyramid un-pointed from the door lintel up to the window frame.
The bricks here are basically falling out of the wall. The lower bonding bricks on top of the lintel are actually sitting on 2″ of crumbling mortar.
In the end I removed all bricks not in a bonding course from the door lintel to the window frame. I used a jack to lift up the treated 4×6. Now the bricks sit right on it rather than on 2″ of crumbling mortar.
Here is the same area finished. Bricks sit directly on the lintel and it all looks WAY stronger.
To finish the 2nd + 3rd floor stairway, all I need to finish up is the doorway. After that we’ll use some acid to take off the mortar haze and then seal it up… then on to the 1st + 2nd floor stairway. So tired of pointing bricks.