Badly cracked and loose brick wall

[tvrulesme]

In the process of renovating an 1810 bungalow (cottage). Having ripped some plasterboard off the wall I was greeted with this horror show. This was the original exterior wall of the house. It was all very damp because there used to be a toilet here and a previous builder decided to just lay DPM and a thin concrete slab over the waste pipe without bothering to cap off the unused soil pipe. 

 

All the bricks in this section are very loose (I could probably pull them out by hand). Struggling to know where to start with it. I was thinking of putting in some 6mm helical bars along the dotted red lines in the picture and then rerouting the plastic pipes so they don't go through this wall and slowly replacing/adding in missing bricks leaving each part to set as I go. 

 

Does this sound sensible or like a stupid plan?

 

The wall will eventually be rendered so I am more interested in structurally sound than pretty.  

 

Any advice very gratefully received. 

 

 

[markc]

As this was the external wall I’m presuming it’s still structural so pulling out and replacing is a lot of work. As it won’t be seen anyway rake out sections of mortar and repoint, ramming the mortar into the voids with a piece of wood or blunt chisel. The bars would do very little. After stabilising the rest of the wall you could chisel out around the pipes, pull them together, sleeve through the wall and then make good around them. Split a length of plastic pipe along its length and slide over the pipes to sleeve instead of disconnecting and passing through.

[tonyshouse]

Are we talking lime or cement for the repairs?  If it was mine I would slate pack the horizontal cracks, check to see if the LH side has foundations 50mm wide with  a pick or wrecking bar half way along the bottom brick.  Then fix SS expanded metal lathing, infill holes with lime mortar first, double nail the expanded metal at 300c/c and lime render it. 

[tvrulesme]

7 minutes ago, markc said:

As this was the external wall I’m presuming it’s still structural so pulling out and replacing is a lot of work. As it won’t be seen anyway rake out sections of mortar and repoint, ramming the mortar into the voids with a piece of wood or blunt chisel. The bars would do very little. After stabilising the rest of the wall you could chisel out around the pipes, pull them together, sleeve through the wall and then make good around them. Split a length of plastic pipe along its length and slide over the pipes to sleeve instead of disconnecting and passing through.

Thank you. The pipes have no real reason to go through the wall any more. I had to dig out the existing slab as it was in a terrible state so for a little extra plastic pipe I may as well route them through the doorway to the left of this section.

 

Seeing as I have a load of helical bars I got in bulk you don't think it's worth shoving a few in for the sake of a few minutes work?

[tvrulesme]

10 minutes ago, tonyshouse said:

Are we talking lime or cement for the repairs?  If it was mine I would slate pack the horizontal cracks, check to see if the LH side has foundations 50mm wide with  a pick or wrecking bar half way along the bottom brick.  Then fix SS expanded metal lathing, infill holes with lime mortar first, double nail the expanded metal at 300c/c and lime render it. 

 

The whole house is going to be rendered in 3 coat lime so ideally I will be using lime mortar but it's such a pain to get hold of and the thought of this loose wall is losing me sleep so I'm going to have to see if my fear overcomes my patience

 

Like the idea of SS expanded metal lathing. I also have some left over slate so packing is a great idea thank you. 

[markc]

@tvrulesme 

Seeing as I have a load of helical bars I got in bulk you don't think it's worth shoving a few in for the sake of a few minutes work?

what material are these rods? Reinforcing in concrete works well but metal corrosion in a masonry  wall can cause more problems than it’s work.

as for the mortar, you don’t need much for this job so a bag or two from Jewsons or TRav P’ won’t break the bank

[tvrulesme]

1 hour ago, markc said:

@tvrulesme 

Seeing as I have a load of helical bars I got in bulk you don't think it's worth shoving a few in for the sake of a few minutes work?

what material are these rods? Reinforcing in concrete works well but metal corrosion in a masonry  wall can cause more problems than it’s work.

as for the mortar, you don’t need much for this job so a bag or two from Jewsons or TRav P’ won’t break the bank

Stainless steel helical bars. I've been warned-off galvanised when using lime for that reason.

 

The only lime that Jewson and TP do is Hydrated Lime which would need to be mixed with cement which is what I am trying to avoid. "It is not suitable for use in mortars and renders without Portland cement as it is a non-hydraulic product". Think I may have found some lime mortar without a crazy delivery price which should be able to get here soon. Fingers crossed