# Forum Home Renovation Brickwork  Brick Pest?

## oukouk

I'm nearly finished with renovating my house when this problem showed up. 
Small holes started appearing on the external house bricks.. initially only sign of moisture (2 inch diameter) and then a few days later a hole will appear in the middle of the moisture patch.. The holes are appearing on my original house bricks as well as the new brickwork.. 
A friend suggested that something has been living in the bricks and break out causing holes.. 
The number of holes are increasing by the day and has already covered 40sqm of the external wall 
Puzzled to wits end and greatly depressed.. :Cry:  
Anyone has any explanation to this?

----------


## denaria

Has some renovation caused saturation interiorally? Is the mortar damp, even slightly?

----------


## PeteV

i've never seen this before... i'm intrigued to see what you come up with... are you absolutely positive it isn't a feature of the brick that was blasted out by an overzealous brick cleaner with a powerful guerny?

----------


## Ken-67

I'm inclined to think they look as if they may be low-quality bricks, where pockets of clay did not fire properly, and are now washing out. Have you recently used acid or a strong brick cleaner to wash the walls down?

----------


## oukouk

To answer your questions; 
Mortar is not Damp.. not even slightly 
The bricks are of good quality.. I recycled some of the old bricks from sections of the house that was torn down and reused them on sections of the new built.. even they are having similar symptoms. 
And I have not washed the bricks either.

----------


## intertd6

it looks like the bricks have been overfired and / or have some inpurities in them which have formed clinker, during the handling & being laid the surface over the clinker has broken away.
regards inter

----------


## denaria

Wild idea, I just googled Perth freeze. You had zero or less temperatures last year june 29th, perhaps it affected the fired skin on your bricks if some were saturated and the results are just now showing up?

----------


## oukouk

Bad news.. the holes are now spreading to the old part of the house, which is 27 years old.. day by day more holes are appearing everywhere..

----------


## Ken-67

That's it, then. You've been invaded by brick-eating aliens. :Biggrin:

----------


## Danny

Have you contacted the brick company? They are sure to be interested.

----------


## PeteV

i got nothing... never seen or heard of anything like it...

----------


## stevoh741

interesting......can bricks get cancer?

----------


## intertd6

> Bad news.. the holes are now spreading to the old part of the house, which is 27 years old.. day by day more holes are appearing everywhere..

  Take some pictures of before & after, you will make history by finding the animal thats eating your bricks.
regards inter

----------


## Ken-67

Can you set up a video camara to try to catch one that is about to 'pop'?

----------


## autogenous

My guess is it is a material like shale that has not bonded in the clay.   
Expansion and contraction is popping the shale which has an indifferent expansion and contraction rate if any at all. 
It will probably have little to no impact on the structural integrity of the product.

----------


## davcan

This problem is caused by small particles of iron or lime near the surface of the brickwork. In both cases, the moisture in the air causes these particles to expand and spall at the face of the brickwork. Unfortunately, with bricks being made from clay straight out of the ground this is unavoidable. Unfortunately there is nothing to my knowledge that will prevent lime and/or iron stone popping.   
Davcan  www.marld.com.au

----------


## Black Cat

That gets my vote - the damage in the photos seems to be more explosive than eroded, and that would fit with rapidly forming crystals near the surface (commonly a result of rising damp in old stone buildings). Do you have a rising damp problem at all?

----------


## Bloss

Nah - I'm with inter on this one - definitely brick bacteria or some animal. Needs long term camera surveillance, hi res lenses - money to be made from this discovery . . .

----------


## Danny

davcan seems to have the creds but why has it spread to old bricks?

----------


## Black Cat

See my post above - I suspect that a new damp environment has been created by the works to date (a concrete slab on one or other side of the wall perhaps? Different ground water movement pattern due to changed terrain? That would activate the older bricks which would otherwise have remained stable as they have been for some time.
I do like Bloss's idea of getting out the high res lenses though - hours of fun to be had there.

----------


## Danny

> initially only sign of moisture (2 inch diameter) and then a few days later a hole will appear in the middle of the moisture patch.

  Yeah, seems to all tie in, the moisture appears first and then whammo but why isn't this problem more common and better known if this is the cause? 
Interesting thread.

----------

