The front wall had been wobbling for a while, and things got really dangerous when one of the road maintenance guys leaned on it and a whole column almost came down.
Took it apart with hammer and chisel brick by brick, trying to reduce it to just the bricks that didn’t wobble. Fun fact: if you remove a strong brick’s wobbly top and wobbly side neighbour, that brick will also begin to wobble…!
Had a go at mixing my own mortar, and unfortunately added just a little bit too much water with no way to rescue it, and did a very sloppy job rebricking the front wall. Those smug bastards and their youtube tutorials making it look easy.
Nice way to chat with the neighbours, who I’m not normally that social with, and everyone has their two cents (“do you know what you’re doing?” “don’t you want to use a line?” “I know a good builder who…” etc.)
It looks terrible, but I’m proud of it, and now that I’ve done it once and learned what not to do, I could happily do it again. Which I will need to, since I only had 1 bag for 25 bricks, and my deconstruction took down 50.
Well I didnt want to bother with sand and cement¥ so i just used a premade mortar mix bag that’s (supposedly) idiot-proof. I used the whole bag, and had nothing leftover once I’d added the water to thicken it!
I’m guessing you’re liable?
Shit, I have no idea. Is that a thing in the UK?
¥ - my dad had a habit of buying bags of both, forgetting about them, leaving them to rot in the shed for years, rinse and repeat until you have an immovable collection of expired building materials
The front wall had been wobbling for a while, and things got really dangerous when one of the road maintenance guys leaned on it and a whole column almost came down.
Took it apart with hammer and chisel brick by brick, trying to reduce it to just the bricks that didn’t wobble.
Fun fact: if you remove a strong brick’s wobbly top and wobbly side neighbour, that brick will also begin to wobble…!
Had a go at mixing my own mortar, and unfortunately added just a little bit too much water with no way to rescue it, and did a very sloppy job rebricking the front wall. Those smug bastards and their youtube tutorials making it look easy.
Nice way to chat with the neighbours, who I’m not normally that social with, and everyone has their two cents (“do you know what you’re doing?” “don’t you want to use a line?” “I know a good builder who…” etc.)
It looks terrible, but I’m proud of it, and now that I’ve done it once and learned what not to do, I could happily do it again. Which I will need to, since I only had 1 bag for 25 bricks, and my deconstruction took down 50.
What happens in that situation if someone were to injure themselves leaning on your wall and it collapses? I’m guessing you’re liable?
Nice work on doing it yourself! I’m always terrified of doing stuff like that and making a huge mess of it.
If you’ve added too much water, can’t you add more cement to thicken it up? I have no idea what I’m talking about so just a wild guess!
Well I didnt want to bother with sand and cement¥ so i just used a premade mortar mix bag that’s (supposedly) idiot-proof. I used the whole bag, and had nothing leftover once I’d added the water to thicken it!
Shit, I have no idea. Is that a thing in the UK?
¥ - my dad had a habit of buying bags of both, forgetting about them, leaving them to rot in the shed for years, rinse and repeat until you have an immovable collection of expired building materials
Tell you what I absolutely love is postcrete.
Useless in your scenario, but it’s just satisfying as fuck to pour in and watch harden in an hour (giggity)