Cracks & Stitching

[handyman11]

Hi, is crack stitching / bedding pieces of metal into mortar joints a specialist job? I ask because there is a wall with some cracks down it that needs pointing. Cracks have been been there years - internal, exposed bricks in a cupboard, the crack runs down in between and around bricks - its not got any worse. But when I look online about this type of work I only seem to see specialist companies, who will want to do a paid for survey etc first, but do general builders also do this type of work. i.e. would this be something that could be done by someone who does repointing? I dont know how complex it is. ANy help appreciated.

 

[Notch7]

It’s pretty straight forward, most builders with bricklaying / pointing skills could do it.

In fact it’s sometimes specified to be done above new steels fitted, so something a builder would do.

Basically you need 6mm or 8mm stainless helical bars and special grouting

The work involves grinding out the joints, blowing out the dust, putting some grouting, pushing in the bars, more grout then finally repoint the last bit with matching pointing

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[handyman11]

It’s pretty straight forward, most builders with bricklaying / pointing skills could do it.

In fact it’s sometimes specified to be done above new steels fitted, so something a builder would do.

Basically you need 6mm or 8mm stainless helical bars and special grouting

The work involves grinding out the joints, blowing out the dust, putting some grouting, pushing in the bars, more grout then finally repoint the last bit with matching pointing

Hey thank you the info, thats really helpful. As I say the cracks are not really wide and have been there good few years, so I just want to repoint but thought that this sort of approach would hold it together better. Its helpful to know I might be able to find a builder / bricklayer who can do it. Its only a small area. Couple of questions please:

- so the 'grout' is different to mortar? And you would use both?
- lets say there was a crack running down a wall - about 8 rows of bricks, more or less going down vertical winding around the bricks, so it does not stretch far horizonatlly across the wall - maybe a brick an halfs worth - so lets say area is 45cm by 62cm....... where would the bars go - presumably all horizintal, but would it be every row or every other? and would they be cut down in length so they were just about 40 odd cms long?

 

[handyman11]

So I've looked up about the length and positioning - the advice is to use 1m lengths for a single crack, illustrations show a bar placed with its central point in line with the crack. However, in my situation the space is quite cramped and the crack is at the edge of the small wall close to a door frame. The advice says that where a crack is near a wall edge to run it round the corner by 100mm. This wont be possible as an internal breeze block wall has been built and butts up to the other side of the door frame. I guess the answer may be to run the bar into the blocks, however, the mortar lines don't match up with brick mortar lines. Only thing I can of is getting two of the breeze blocks taken out, then replacing with cut down pieces to place mortar lines in the right place. Any thoughts on that?

Lastly, failing all the above. If you cant extend round a corner by 100mm, will placing the bar so that it overhangs the crack by 10cm one side and 90cm the other, would that still help / have any beneficial affect? Similarly if the bar was cut down a bit, and the crack was off centre with no wrap around a corner, would it still help tie things together? The crack does not look like it is getting worse and has been there for quite some years, so the idea of adding two bars and pointing would be to give it extra stability.