TW Brick Cleaning Company’s Brick Restoration Service

Restoring the bricks

Compared to homes built after the 1920s, many heritage homes were constructed significantly differently. To their detriment, some tradespeople who were working on this brickwork may have sown the seeds of long-term harm by failing to account for this disparity.

Our brickwork restoration specialists are qualified to identify areas where outdated brickwork has been carelessly repaired using contemporary techniques. They will only employ conventional equipment and raw materials that were used in the building’s construction to fix the brickwork.

Repair of Bricks

In certain circumstances, you might not immediately realize the full degree of the brickwork damage. Maybe you’ll want us to just clean the brickwork on your historic building, but when we go to remove the dust and soot from the surface, especially if a lot of it has built up, we find shockingly severe damage. The good news is that we can rapidly assess the extent of the damage and choose the best way to fix it.

In order to allow your brickwork to “breathe,” one of our brickwork repair services involves repointing the lime mortar to a quality that is sufficiently porous. In the absence of it, moisture and soluble salts could accumulate in the brickwork and result in penetrating dampness. In the end, our goal while fixing your brickwork is to return it to its former state and features, hiding any signs that it was ever anything less than magnificent from observers.

Replacement of Bricks

Some bricks that have corroded or rotted severely may be good candidates for replacement. If we decide to replace a brick, we will use our brick matching service to find a substitute that is as close as we can to the original in its original condition.

In order to accurately restore the brickwork’s original form and reflect how the building was originally constructed, we will carefully choose a material here as well. This may entail pointing with lime as opposed to cement-based mortar, which is only appropriate for contemporary properties. You won’t find us employing cement mortar in our job since at our brickwork firm, we only ever utilize the greatest technique for restoring the original, magnificent appearance of your property.

BRICK RESTORATION

Bricks are durable, robust and classed as one of the strongest building materials for hundreds of years, but that doesn’t mean they don’t need occasional maintenance.

Bricks, whatever their style are definitely worth treasuring. Over the last four or five centuries countless buildings were built with bricks. Hence the wide variety of brick styles that is evident in Britain’s architectural diversity.

As the principal structural element of a property, brickwork should not be neglected or mistreated. Neglect or mistreatment can lead to numerous problems or damage that will require a professional brick restoration company to assess. Numerous problems can arise that can be identified by particular warning signs:

• Loose bricks
• Crumbling bricks
• Deteriorated and missing mortar
• Internal and external damp patches
• Cracks through brickwork
• Expanded or bulging walls

Brick Cleaning London covers all the above under our brick restoration services.

BRICK REPAIR AND REPLACEMENT

Bricks may be chipped, loose or missing, allowing moisture to infiltrate these areas. Damaged bricks are more open to moisture penetration, which can cause further damage externally and internally and have structural implication for the wall. At Brick Cleaning London, we will assess the walls and assess what brick restoration process is required and where.

Brick Cleaning London will always replace bricks with like-for-like, if not exactly the same (as some bricks are difficult to source), similar in size, style and colour, maintaining the buildings integrity. We have a number of brick suppliers and brick manufacturers on our suppliers’ list that cover a range of new, new traditional styled and reclaimed bricks.

Our Brick Repair and Replacement Methods

Brick repair and replacement is a very manual job that requires an understanding of bricks. To repair takes skill, as the repair needs to be completed correctly to avoid further moisture penetration and should match the original brick colouring.

A brick replacement requires the skill to gentlt remove the old mortar joints surrounding the damaged bricks. Then replace bricks with like-for-like and repoint the mortar joint with a similar mortar formula, colour and technique.

Brick Cleaning London has been repairing and replacing bricks for over 20 years and can advise on which bricks needs repair or replacement, how many and whether that particular brick is readily available or more difficult to find.

REPOINTING

Repointing is the process of removing and replacing the mortar joints between your brickwork. Weathering, decay and structural movement can cause the mortar joints to crack, corrode or crumble. Not only does this spoil the appearance of the masonry but can lead to further damage externally and internally. Patches of loose bricks can appear from the crumbling mortar joints, reducing the stability of the structure.

Brick Cleaning London has skilled men that are proficiency in numerous repointing methods. We will and like to use the same technique as used when the building was first built. We respect the buildings authenticity.

Our Repointing Method

Repointing is manual process that requires manual methods and tools. A process that requires patience, as the mortar requires gentle removal to avoid further damage to the brickwork. Once the mortar joints are completely removed, we apply matching mortar in all joints using the original procedure.

We are happy to test an area of brickwork to not only show our clients what the end result will be but also to determine how difficult the current pointing is to remove.

Watch our videos below to see us in action at a recent brick repair and repointing project.

Call Brick Cleaning London for any brick restoration; brick repairs, brick replacement or repointing concerns, we will be happy to advise or provide a free no obligation quotation.