Plans for keeping house warm?

[Rosalind]

Can you see if you could get the repointing done in sections? Like, just have a contractor do the worst part, and then watch very closely what they do to see if it's something you can do?

It's actually not terribly hard. I've done smallish projects like patios and stoops, and DH once did a foundation of a place we were renting, because rats were getting in. But if you have a bad back, forget it--if you've got slipped discs or anything like that, you'll kill yourself doing brickwork. If heavy lifting is no problem, then I'd say it's worth learning. Sometimes Lowe's or places like that have weekend classes.

 

[ChickenToes]

I didn't read through the whole thread, so I hope I'm not repeating what someone else already suggested. Try buying thermal curtains, they block out a lot of the cold that seeps in around windows.

 

[EweSheep]

I've got a bad back, scatic nerve damage but sometimes I do not let it get me in the way of things that needed to be done. I worry about that later by a good massage by hubby and long hot soak!

I dont think it would be too hard but how to is the hardest part if you never done it. No one in my family ever done it even they have tons of experience in building things but not brickwork of a house. The only thing close would be the brick walkway. Our Lowe's do not have that type of classes so I might just surf the net and find out what it is required. The mortor of the house is weird, more like rough sand of some sort and brittle when you run your fingers thru it. Have plenty of cracks, hairline to spaces size of a pencil's eraser. The window sill trim has been broken off and figured a solid type of rock, marble maybe? would be the way to go. Many of the bricks got the etching on it, that is bad for freezing weather because it would later pop the brick in half or crack it. If to replace the brick, might just go smooth face instead of etched type. Etched type looks like a comb running on short side. Ugly, yep LOL!

 

[Joz]

re re-pointing the brick: Make sure you're using an appropriate mix of mortar and cement.

Brick-and-mortar walls expand/contract with temperature/humidity extremes, especially in freezing environments. Mortar is meant to be softer than bricks, so that the mortar will crumble and give way during expansion/contraction. If you use too much cement in your mortar mix, or if you just use cement, it will be too hard, and the bricks will crumble instead, which is bad.

This recipe for mortar will depend on what type of bricks you have. Are they old, soft bricks or hard modern bricks?

 

[EweSheep]

The bricks looks hard and crumbly. Not sure exactly what soft and hard bricks would look like or supposed to act like. It had three holes for even firing or baking methods they used back then. There is no stamps on them for company's name. We do not find anything on the contractors in the court records but only the owners.

The mortar is very brittle. When it falls, it has a bing sound to it not a thud. When you take a pencil length mortar, it can be snapped in half with some effort like breaking a pencil. The sand is course feeling, not like playsand feel but more like ground up coral feel. The house is built in 1938 I believe. The houses around me with similar bricks ended up being redone and repointed with different color of mortar and much smoother in grain.

When the weather clears up, I can take a few pics of the worst offenders, the south side and you can tell me if it is soft or hard or whatever mortar may be. We do not have the money to have the mortar analized but we know that we can not use a large percentage of cement. Those "ready made" mortars, I am questioning about that as well.

A few blocks down, a homeowner had her house redone, the contractors tore all the bricks off, insulate and put in new bricks...it looked awesome but very, very pricey! It had to be redone because of a repeated DUI lady driver plowed her car into the corner of her house, affecting all the dynamics of the house that it left cracks thru the house but inside was unaffected. Not only that accident, two male teenagers were killed on the spot. She was going about 65 mph on a 35 mph road, drunk as snot and now she is paying for her time, life in prison.....been charged with DUI 16 times.

At the time they tore the bricks off her house, I could see the studs and so forth and I thought it would have been easier just to put some insulation, plywood and siding. However I guess the insurance (either home or offender's insurance -she didnt have insurance on her car because of DUI). The homeowner was very pleased with the outcome of the work and I never got the chance to see the contractor or business that did the work. Maybe next spring I will swing by and pay this homeowner a visit and ask for their referals and the cost for it to be done.

I looked at the DIY sites and it looks simple enough to do when you are doing it little at a time. Too bad that the stores don't do quick analizes on mortars.