English Deutsch Français Italiano Español Português 繁體中文 Bahasa Indonesia Tiếng Việt ภาษาไทย
All categories

Our fireplace was not maintained too well before we bought this house. It has been fine for 3 years, but this year we had some major rains and now it has pretty much been snowing non stop for 2 weeks. We have noticed that water was dripping into the fireplace which has never happened. Upon closer inspection I also noticed that the mortar between the firebrick were kind of foaming and very soft. I could scoop the mortar right out of the joint if I wanted to. Now this looks like it might have been repaired before, but obviously not correctly. My question...1. why is there water coming in? 2. how do I fix the mortar problem? Is there a special mortar I should use? Someone said to just build a fire and it'll all dry out on it's own, but I don't buy that theory. Any feedback would be appreciated. Thanks

2007-02-01 08:06:02 · 3 answers · asked by nic43201 1 in Home & Garden Maintenance & Repairs

3 answers

did you use a heavy duty cleaner to clean the fire-box?if by chance you did,it is reacting to the limestone in the mortar mix.only cure is to remove old mortar and re-point the joints.the brick in the fire-box area is a special fire rated brick,you can re-point with a standard pre-mix mortar.there is a special type of chisel to be used in removing the old mortar.you need not remove all of the mortar,just go about 1/2" deep into the joint.job is not difficult,just time consuming.also,allow the new mortar to cure for 2 weeks or so before building a fire.

2007-02-01 08:34:04 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 0 0

The mortar was not mixed correctly and therefore did not dry out or cure right. If you do not mix cement right, eventually it will crumble like mortar. Anyway, I presume you have used the fireplace before and dried the mortar but then the next rainy season you will have the same problem.

Also, if your chimney does not have a cover for the top to deflect rain, the water will come in and seep in thru the fireplace and cause a water problem. Especially on some major rain coming in.

Kind of hard to tell you what to do without seeing the fireplace. But go to a store that sells the mortar and do it yourself. It is not that hard to do. I presume that you have checked the outside and with a screwdriver poke around toward the lower end and see if any soft spots in the mortar. If only in one spot, then you can take out the one brick, chip away the old stuff, and line the bottom and sides with mortar. Trick is you are more concerned with laying brick correctly on bottom. Put brick in, and then on outside push more mortar in to fill up the crack. Go inside and scrape away any excess or fill up any gaps you may have left.

That is a basics. All you need is a two inch scraper, cheapo chisel, hammer, and mortar and a dollar store bowl to mix the mortar in and throw the bowl away later. lol You are only doing a couple of bricks, I guess and you do not need a trowel. That is used to lay major mortar when laying a lot of bricks.

Try and see if you can isolate spots if possible or test the mortar cracks. And while you are at it, get on top and with GOOD flashlight check the flue or inside of chimney to ensure it is clean.

2007-02-01 08:28:14 · answer #2 · answered by Big C 6 · 0 0

just remortar the bricks the easy way is to use one of the bags that they use for decoratin cakes put you motar in it and squzze it out good luck

2007-02-01 08:12:25 · answer #3 · answered by joemarques68 3 · 0 0

fedest.com, questions and answers