fixing cracked walls-need advice

[BrokenBiker]

so I noticed the other day I had a crack in the front wall of my house where the gas meter is. whilst looking for something in the shed earlier I tripped over a tub of ready mix mortar so decided to have a go at it

I took a bolster to the crack, got all the loos mortar out and grooved out the cracked brick too. mixed up the ready mix mortar and filled the crack in. at first I thought it was going well but as I got further in I realised I was making a bit of a mess of it.

im not happy with the mortar covering the bricks, at first I thought it was just where I had hosed the crack down to get all the dust and little bits of broken mortar out, but it is actually the mortar I put on, ive tried scraping it off but it wont have it.

so firstly, how do I get it off so it looks a bit neater, and secondly, as I have a few more cracks to fill in how can I just fill the void between the bricks rather than get it all over the bricks as I have done here?

as you can tell im not a builder, but still want to do the best job I can. didn't think it would be as difficult as it was to be honest, turned into a bit of a mare when I tried getting the mortar in the gaps

 

[MCKDAVID]

hard wire brush over the bricks, whould clean up most of it, cement takes a good while to get to full strength, should be able to get rid of most of it. Wet sponge as you're applying it, smooth it over, then a qucik bash with a bit of 10mm round bar for teh pointing.

I'm not a builder either, but have had some success with the above before.

 

[rtbcomp]

Give it week to harden then it should brush off with a wire brush as above. What's left will eventually weather in.

 

[BrokenBiker]

cheers guys, as it is starting to dry out it seems to be matching the colour of the brick in places.

i have a tool for pointing, just a bit of half round bar with a handle really but seemed to work.well enough on this.

will wire brush it in a few days

 

[Shedendman]

Is that above a window or door?

 

[Shedendman]

opps sorry didnt read the post proper,its a gas meter

 

[BrokenBiker]

no not near windows or doors etc. I'm assuming there is a structural issue if it was.

its is drying off quite nicely and starting to look as id imagined it now so starting to feel a bit better about the crap job i did.

 

[Rocketman]

Off topic a bit but what kind of bricks are those Brokenbiker?

 

[BrokenBiker]

Very faded ones. I know nowt about bricks so assume they are just normal red bricks. Been here 40ish years so fairly weathered now.

Off topic a bit but what kind of bricks are those Brokenbiker?

 

[BrokenBiker]

had a bit of a tidy up, looks better now and I think it will look near invisible when it dries properly and turns grey. on closer inspection there have been a lot of repairs done in the past to the mortar in this wall

 

[Shedendman]

Any cracks in the brick under the casing?

 

[BrokenBiker]

Any cracks in the brick under the casing?

there are, but not coming from it. the crack below starts at the door frame and runs about 4 foot right along one line of mortar. it is next on the list

 

[Shedendman]

Your house or rented?
Dont want to press any alarm bells here but get someone to have a look,you've got movement somewhere,plugging it up wont do nothing,over time they'll only reappear again.

 

[the snooper]

as above definitely movement when a brick is broken in half with a 2mm gap

 

[Rocketman]

The old big warning is if you can get a hand in you have got serious problems so 2mm is some way off this but well worth if you own the property to keep an eye on it.

The mortar they originally used looks quite grey so could have been quite a strong mix. Personally I'm not a massive fan of strong mixes on brickwork because it causes cracks through bricks, where as a weaker mix would have just cracked zig zag through the mortar.