White stuff (salts) coming out of brick joints.

[smashngrab]

I've seen a few new garden walls walls around where i live with all this white stuff coming out. It completely ruins the look of the wall,why is this happening?

It seems to never stop,is it in the sand or the cement.and what needs to be done to make sure it doesn't happen when i get a wall built

 

[spada01]

Is it an external ground floor wall?

I've seen it before where there was a damp problem and the damp brought the salts out. We ended up curing the damp problem with an injected DPC and waterproof render for the first metre up and this stopped the salts.

 

[^woody^]

Efflorescence is for life, not just for Christmas

 

[r896neo]

I assume this is relatively new brickwork you are talking about?

It is efflourescence and incredibly common and nothing to worry about. It is unsightly but will eventually go away. It is caused by salts leaching out of the bricks and mortar. Just brush it off with a stiff brush, try to wash it off and you'll just prolong it.

As far as reducing the risk of it occuring on brickwork you want done you can buy bricks which are substatially less likely to suffer from it and various other practical things that a brickie can advise you of if you are particularly keen to avoid it.