How to repair brick wall
If you do diy jobs around your home you will probably finish up with a hole in a wall at some point, and this article explains how to fill a hole in a brick wall
Let’s face it, filling a hole in a wall isn’t the most exciting of topics so there’s a video of `Another brick in the wall’ by Pink Floyd below the article. This isn’t really part of the article, it’s just to get you in the mood.
(click on photo on left to enlarge it).
A lot of people make the mistake of mixing a mix of sand and cement and trying to fill the hole with this. It doesn’t work. If the hole is any deeper than about an inch in depth the mix won’t stay inside it. After about a minute, it will crack and start to fall out of the hole.
The reason for this is, the mix needs something to bond to, something solid to fix itself to, and it doesn’t have this. The solution to the problem is to give the mix something solid to bond to, so that it won’t fall out of the wall.
The best material for this is small pieces of broken brick or concrete, but if you have to break up a brick or piece of concrete with a hammer, be sure to wear safety spectacles.
Mix a mix of sand and cement to the ratio of 3 to 1. This means a mix of three parts of sand and one part of cement. You don’t have to be too exact, but this is the ratio to aim for. Lay a layer of mix in the hole about half an inch deep.
Lay it on the floor of the hole, on the walls and on the top of the hole. Place a piece of broken brick or concrete into the hole, on top of the mix. Lay another half inch of mix on top of the broken brick or concrete. Lay another half inch of mix on top of this.
Continue like this until the hole is completely filled.
Then, using the same mix, plaster some of the mix over the surface of the hole, so that its flush with the wall. If you later plan to plaster over the hole, so that it has a smooth finish, scrape out about 1\4 inch of the mix from the hole. When you’re ready to plaster over the hole, fill this 1\4 hole with plaster.