# Forum Home Renovation Brickwork  Removal of old in-wall Air-Conditioner, It's gonna leave a hole that needs a patching

## RickW

Hi, the task is to remove this old in-wall air-conditioner and patch the hole. 
Anyone have a recommendation on the simplest method to patch the hole, as I'm assuming the removal should be straightforward. 
Wall is double brick with a cavity. 
Outside wall I'm thinking
- I have a few semi-matching bricks to put in its place with a bit of mortar between 
Inside wall, I'm thinking
- frame up with 2by4s anchored into brick
- face with plasterboard and finish with tape and multipurpose plaster

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## Uncle Bob

I'd just brick both sides.

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## Marc

Brick both sides, just follow what is there.

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## METRIX

You need to brick up both sides, if you have never done anybricking before best to get someone in who knows how to do it, as you will make it look terrible from the outside 
Don;t use plasterboard inside, it won't match the sand finish of the render, and will stand out like a massive patch, it needs to be rendered inside to make it remotely match what's there.

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## Bros

Looked at doing the same thing but as with bricks and tiles you never get the same bricks again so it went in the to hard basket.

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## Marc

Mine was in the too hard basked for years. Until I went to buy some tools from a builders supplies and asked if they knew of a retired bricky that wanted to take up a very small job. Sure thing they gave me the number of this guy who could barely walk let alone do any work ... however ... he bricked up my aircon with some spares I had, matched the colour of the mortar so well that it is impossible to tell where the patch is ... and ... charged me $150, just a couple of years back.

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## RickW

Thanks for all the advice, air-con was removed today and wow was it heavy and huge, it must have taken 4 guys to put the bloody thing in the 70s.  
And since I'm going to have the tv right under where it is in the future, I think I'll brick it up as I don't want to be looking at it for the next 50 years.  
So what's the process for internal wall?
1. Bricks with mortar
2. Render (10mm) (? like the Acrylic Render bag from buns?)
3. Plaster topcoat
4. Undercoat + paint

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## johnc

Yes, the acrylic render is fine, just leave a couple of mm for the plaster and a good sand with 120 to 150 grit if you need to tidy up before painting.

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## RickW

job is now done, in the end, it would have been easier just to frame up and plasterboard, as the whole space is covered in plaster over the render anyways the same as I would have done over plasterboard. 
The hardest part was getting air-con out of the wall it must have weighed nearly 100kg, it must have taken 10 guys to get it up there. 
In the end, I bricked up, attempted to render (which I couldn't get the consistency right), then a layer of base coat and then top coat, a lick of paint and you would never know and it looks the same as the rest of the wall.   
Thanks for all the advice!

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