r/masonry

Hope you had a good day

I'm not really sure why my fireplace (I don't use it but want to put an insert into it to make it usable) has all this plaster over it. I'm trying to figure out how feasible it would be to make it look like a brick fireplace.

I'm sure there's gotta be brick underneath all that plaster(mortar?) would it be best to get rid of that plaster to expose brick? Or to use like a faux brick facade over a frame built over the plaster? Something else entirely? What's your creative design opinions?

It was my first time doing any kind of masonry work. My body is quite sore but I enjoyed it. Feel free to roast my work.

Some thoughts:

• Buttering bricks is hard. Maybe the mortar. Maybe my technique. 6/7 times I tried to butter the end of a brick, the mortar slid right off.
• I ended up laying the bricks into a bed of mortar and then pointing/grouting/smushing the mortar into the vertical gaps after.
• Mortar that is too stiff is hard to work with, but too wet is even worse. I don't think I ever got the right consistency.
• Cutting bricks with a chisel is fun.
• The brick spacing was determined by the ribs on the underside of the lid. That part was kinda dumb.
• Next time I'll be more diligent about wearing gloves. My hands were mad at me last night.
• I'm going to give the bricks a gentle acid scrub to get excess mortar off.

That's all I got, I guess. It was fun. I'd like to do more projects with bricks and mortar in the future.

This is what I bring to work on a daily basis, minus my hard hat and STIHL ts420. Is this overkill? I’m technically just a labourer at my company, but my boss just started giving me some wall time. Been at it for 6 years now and with this crew for about 18 months. I’m just trying to gauge if I look stupid or not having all this, when some bricklayers on the crew have a small box and a couple levels. Any opinions are welcome and appreciated!

Clay tiles at the top of my chimney have disintegrated. I was going to mortar some slate tiles I already have to there to close the holes up, birds are getting in. The chimney is used to vent my hot water tank. What cement/mortar should I use, and/or how else could I repair this?

We applied adhered veneer poly mortar to secured metal lath, but feeling we didn't make our scratch coat deep enough.

I've noticed there are small cracks in the dried mortar too. Do we need to redo the wall or add more mortar on top?

What is the best way to repair this? It’ll be rendered so it doesn’t have to be perfect
Thanking you in advance.

Is there anyone familiar with this brick finish in the Baton Rouge. Lafayette area?" It's doesn't appear to be a smear as the finish is smooth, it kind of resembles a stucco. TIA!

We moved into our brick house 3 years ago. It's 100 years old and was probably one of the earlier homes built with a little bit of Portland cement mixed into the lime mortar. You will see in the pictures that a lot of the original plaster is still directly on top of the masonry. I'm having trouble, even after consulting with MANY masons, figuring out how worried I should be about the integrity of our walls. The masons have said different things and are often selling their services, so it can be confusing.

The cover picture for this post is from the time when we hired a talented (in many ways) handyman to patch a few weird spots on the top left and he told us we should demo it and put up drywall. We didn't end up doing that but hired someone else who used gypsum to patch the areas we had to and lord knows how that will hold up. The rest of the house hasn't had the plaster disturbed like this.

Here is what we know:

- We need some spot pointing (can't afford $35,000 for full repointing). 2 out of 3 masons said spot pointing would do the trick

- We can't fix the walls with lime plaster due to the tar coating on the interior of the brick that was applied when the home was built.

- We have spots all over the house that are more hollow sounding when we knock, some places that feel a little sandy, and a lot is still solid

- Our back walls are quite uneven (see picture with the cabinet- you can see the gap where the bottom should meet the wall

- We don't have a rising damp issues

- Our windows are fine, need recaulking

- Our foundation is level, no issues in the basement that we have observed

What I'd like to know:

- We had our kitchen redone and they didn't redo the walls. They said they are find/solid but should I be concerned that they bow out in the middle? Does that mean the plaster is failing or just that over the years things settled or were patched badly? The outside of the house has been inspected- no bowing or indications of structural issue.

- When we do patch the sandy clumpy looking areas, what material should we be using? Should we be piecemeal doing framing and drywall to avoid this issue?

- Any other thoughts!

Thanks so much.