In a previous post I mentioned how poorly a little brick building was built on the property in La Paz but that I was going to try to work with it so I could have a roof over my head when I was staying out there to get some work done. I"m still going to work with the structure but I'm going to show you what I mean.
The chimney on the right of the building wasn't tied to the building, so I removed 4 bricks at the transition from the fire box and here is what I got.
Easy take down but you can see the nice clean bricks with no mortar attached after it fell. This is the root of the problem. They used a weak mortar but most importantly they didn't wet the bricks so the bricks wicked the moisture from the mortar and it didn't stick. I see this type of brick work all over the place especially in rural areas. This is a earthquake zone, so I guess the bond beam they pour at the top of the walls keeps them from having to rebuild when the earth shakes.
I needed to make the door opening narrower so I used my salvaged bricks from the chimney, soaking three at a time in a 5 gallon bucket of water. The bricks are baked in a kiln but are porous so in the course of laying 20 bricks they soaked up 2 gallons of water. I am also using a larger aggregate sand so my mortar doesn't have to be so stiff to maintain a 1 inch mortar joint.
Tying in the new brickwork with 3/8" rebar every 16 inches.
A one to three mix with a little calcium carbonate - just my personal preference - there is no type N portland here, so I add some quick lime (calcium carbonate) to the type 1 portland that is available. Did I mention that I am old and hard headed?
Next week I should be able to get the gate posts blocked up and the front door installed and maybe get to laying out the addition. I'll post again in 5 or 6 days.
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