Problems, problems.

[hutch--]

I am currently being held up waiting for a new toy, its a small high pressure water cleaner "Gerni" so I can clean brickwork made from antique handmade bricks more quickly. The photo below is the next task I must do, I have matched a set of bricks to go over the doorway from the inside, the outside is already done. You pick through them something like a jigsaw puzzle to get them to match the slight taper i need then touch up the edges with a diamond saw on an angle grinder so hat the joins look tidier. The humour is even though the technique is referred to as a flat arch, once the are laid with a correct mortar mix, they become a lintel. With the old ones i have pulled down in the past, those with an iron bar below them have been damaged by the iron bar rusting and cracking the mortar joins, those without it were still in perfect nick 130 years down the track.

[MichaelW]

Just don't let your neighbors see you using a micrometer on the bricks to get the taper just right  :bg

[vanjast]

The way to make them a (l)intel is to use the mov instruction !!! - sorry couldn't stop myself :)

How about making a wooden frame/piece with 'the slight taper' then place (mov/bswap) the bricks untill their top surfaces are level ?
and heavy 'bookends' on either side to keep everything in place.

[jj2007]

How about making a wooden frame

That's a cute idea, but will Olly recognise it?
::)

[dedndave]

yah - in Arizona, the metal bar above windows and doors is now a requirement to meet code on rebuilds
i think it's a stupid idea - as you say, it rusts out long before the bricks crumble
the Romans had the right idea - modern builders seem to have forgotten the basics



as for the power-washer - those things take care in operation
it isn't hard to eat the brick - especially with older brick like yours
there are probably some chemicals that could be added to the water to help remove the old mortar

[MichaelW]

Labor today is tad more expensive than it was for the Romans. You can avoid the rust problem by using 18-8 stainless instead of the normal structural steel.

[dedndave]

stainless ain't cheap, either   :bg

[Bill Cravener]

I love the look of old brick and it has value. I've seen the Amish tear down whole houses brick by brick cleaned and neatly stacked ready to be re-sold.

[hutch--]

Bill,

Thats how I got enough to do the job I am doing, carefully pulled down the old parts and even saved the halfs and quarters and cleaned them all by hand so i did not wreck the edges. They were made in a big fire very close to where the house is and fortunately these are well fired to a bit burnt. The "Gerni" will be handy when it turns up but at the moment we are having a record cold winter here in Sydney and its too cold to work with wet hands.

If this was not being laid as face brick on both sides you would use a concrete lintel over the door, they cost peanuts and are reasonably easy to put in place and probably would cost a lot less than a stainless arch bar and thats if you could get one here at the moment.

[vanjast]

stainless ain't cheap, either   :bg

Ja.. but for another 100 years it'll be cheap... and they can say
"This is the house that.. Hutch built"
:)

[vanjast]

That's a cute idea, but will Olly recognise it?
::)

Only if it recognises 'out-of-brick' memory leaks
:)

[hutch--]

Van,

This is where you feel robbed when you do restoration work on an old house, get the details right and no-one can tell the difference between the old parts and the rebuilt parts. They think you have just cleaned up and repainted it.

The problem here at the moment is its really cold and it won't stop raining. Must be that Global Warming kicking in and the prediction that it will never rain in Australia again.  :P

[Gunner]

This is where you feel robbed when you do restoration work on an old house, get the details right and no-one can tell the difference between the old parts and the rebuilt parts. They think you have just cleaned up and repainted it.

Sure you feel robbed if your looking for praise  :bg  But that is the sign of great work.... not being able to tell the difference between old and "new" old or the rebuilt parts  :U

[Magnum]

as for the power-washer - those things take care in operation
it isn't hard to eat the brick - especially with older brick like yours
there are probably some chemicals that could be added to the water to help remove the old mortar

If those were Mexican bricks, I would agree with you.

Hutch's bricks look like the baked kind.

[baltoro]

It looks like you're putting alot of real love into it, Hutch,...
If you keep this up, you'll probably get on the cover of Architectural Digest,...and you'll have to conduct tours for numerous annoyingly opinionated rich people from all over the world. And, you know how they are,...they won't let you smoke in your own hiouse. :eek