How to glue 2 bricks together

[gejohesch]

I'm "upgrading" my wife's 2 houses compound. It's very nice and spacious enough, in a quiet and rather clean street in a small village in Isan. The wall by the street is in a good condition but the first house is less than 2 metres from the wall and there are 2 problems : when it rains, too much water gets over the wall and with time damages the house (mold etc); the house is south-facing and when the weather is hot, the wall does not provide sufficient shade to my liking.

 

The wall is actually not a simple, continuous walls. It is interrupted by spaces with a "decorative" style of fencing. The fencing is higher then the wall by a good foot or so - see the first pic. I have started fitting acrylic sheets along the fencing parts, to stop at least some of the rain. The acrylic sheets is what I have represented as semi-transparent panels on the first pic. If I don't do anything else, the result will not look elegant in my sense, the sheets sticking out a bit like a sore thumb. So I have decided to add a few runs of bricks on top of the existing wall, to come up to the same level as the fencing and acrylic sheets. That will also provide extra shade and extra protection against the rain.

 

The brick pattern I have come up with is as shown on the 2nd and 3d pics. Using the standard red bricks one can find everywhere in Isan. The wall varies between 7 and 8 cm thickness (it's Isan-built ????), which is just enough to seat the bricks on. I have modeled the pattern with mortar joints of 1cm thickness. For that pattern, I think of gluing bricks in pairs. My question then (apologies for the long introduction) is : which product to use for gluing the bricks can I find around here? Would any all-purpose glue do, or is there anything better?

 

By the way, one comment that may come up is how am I going to add strength to the bricks? Normally, I think, one would build a pillar at both ends, but that's not possible in this case (again, see the pics). However, the runs will not be that long - they will vary between 1 and 3.5 metres along the wall (the wall is rather irregular, again : Isan-built ????). Also, there are a number of pillars in the wall (in orange on the pics) which provide extra space that I can use to add bricks by the side of the brick runs - see pic 3 - to add a bit of strength.

 

Recommendations re. the gluing product, and other comments, will be very appreciated. Thanks in advance!

[metisdead]

Moved to the DIY Housing Forum.

[lanng khao]

I'm a bricklayer, why can't you use morter on the stacked brick rather than glue them , be easier and just as strong 

[IvorBiggun2]

Loctite PL 500 Landscape Block Adhesive,

[gejohesch]

4 hours ago, lanng khao said:

I'm a bricklayer, why can't you use morter on the stacked brick rather than glue them , be easier and just as strong 

My idea is not to use glue throughout (in which case I understand it would not be that strong). Glue only for to make sets of 2 bricks, and then mortar to assemble the sets (see my pics). Because 1) that would make me get to the desired height; 2) there would be less mortar work, and less messing up of the bricks with mortar everywhere (I want the bricks to keep their original red surface for aesthetic reasons). Understand, I'm not a pro, so less mortar work is better for me, and I can glue the sets of bricks comfortably sitting somewhere, before getting to the follow up work on the wall. I'm not a pro but I prefer to do the work myself even if it takes time. I would not trust a local "châng" to do the work cleanly.

[gejohesch]

4 hours ago, IvorBiggun2 said:

Loctite PL 500 Landscape Block Adhesive,

Thanks. Do I find that in Home Pro or Global House?

[rwill]

TOA Fast Bond or some other no nail adhesive.

[brianthainess]

12 hours ago, gejohesch said:

The wall by the street is in a good condition but the first house is less than 2 metres from the wall and there are 2 problems

Seem like you have 3 problems, when you say less than 2mt from the wall does that mean to the outside of the wall? That would be against building Regs. By less than 2mt what is it exactly ?

[IvorBiggun2]

7 hours ago, gejohesch said:

Thanks. Do I find that in Home Pro or Global House?

Many similar items on the market if Home Pro or Global house have run out.  

[Xin Loi]

Why not use an adhesive based mortar, like what is used to cement super block together. Found at Global, What to do, Big lot etc. in 5 lb bags.

 

[gejohesch]

22 minutes ago, brianthainess said:

Seem like you have 3 problems, when you say less than 2mt from the wall does that mean to the outside of the wall? That would be against building Regs. By less than 2mt what is it exactly ?

You may be right in theory, but no one seems to care with that around where I live. That house and the wall by the street were built so many years back anyway, if anyone had an issue, we would have known a long time ago!

 

The distance from the house to the street wall varies between 1.5m and 1.2m. It runs at an angle, I don't know why but people don't seem to like straight lines nor parallel lines in this country! They don't seem to care much about vertical lines either, come to think about it.... ????

[gejohesch]

4 minutes ago, Xin Loi said:

Why not use an adhesive based mortar, like what is used to cement super block together. Found at Global, What to do, Big lot etc. in 5 lb bags.

 

Thanks, the thing is I want no space between the 2 bricks. With any type of mortar, there would be a join with some thickness (at least 8-10mm I think) and that would make my original design inapplicable, as I want the total height to reach the level of the acrylic sheets and top of the fencing. OK, I can always come up with a different design, there are many variations possible .....

[Tropposurfer]

17 hours ago, lanng khao said:

I'm a bricklayer, why can't you use morter on the stacked brick rather than glue them , be easier and just as strong 

My thoughts too. If the wall is allowing water to migrate through it then what about waterproofing it with a paintable liquid membrane?

As for gaps in the wall do as 'laang k' saiid simple infill with bricks (if ya need to use a narrower width brick profile to match the existing wall you can hire a brick saw and cut them to the required width.

To add structural strength to the wall attach chicken wire along the entire wall surface area using mortar nails then render over (add Silasec) to the render mix to water proof the wall.

You say adding piers isn't possible?  Why is that? Surely you have enough space between wall and house to add them. If not how about adding them on the other side of the wall from your property? If there's another building on that side maybe approach the owner and see if this is possible.

 

I'd post here that any wall that has not enough structural elements to withstand reasonable building standards re: lateral force needs to be added too or torn down and rebuilt to eliminate this absent necessity. 

It is common in the Thai press to hear of walls collapsing and injuring and killing people ... don't invite this on yourself or others.

 

Sadly the ground moisture won't be amended by the additions I suggest as possible amendments  but they will help prevent it somewhat from going though into the space between wall and house and creating damp and the mould n smells associated.

 

If possible could you install a slot drains along the entire length of the side of your house, and or an underground agg. pipe either side of the wall to collect water and moisture and divert it away from the side of the house? This would remove rainwater, and roof runoff quickly.

 

 

[gejohesch]

27 minutes ago, Tropposurfer said:

My thoughts too. If the wall is allowing water to migrate through it then what about waterproofing it with a paintable liquid membrane?

As for gaps in the wall do as 'laang k' saiid simple infill with bricks (if ya need to use a narrower width brick profile to match the existing wall you can hire a brick saw and cut them to the required width.

To add structural strength to the wall attach chicken wire along the entire wall surface area using mortar nails then render over (add Silasec) to the render mix to water proof the wall.

You say adding piers isn't possible?  Why is that? Surely you have enough space between wall and house to add them. If not how about adding them on the other side of the wall from your property? If there's another building on that side maybe approach the owner and see if this is possible.

 

I'd post here that any wall that has not enough structural elements to withstand reasonable building standards re: lateral force needs to be added too or torn down and rebuilt to eliminate this absent necessity. 

It is common in the Thai press to hear of walls collapsing and injuring and killing people ... don't invite this on yourself or others.

 

Sadly the ground moisture won't be amended by the additions I suggest as possible amendments  but they will help prevent it somewhat from going though into the space between wall and house and creating damp and the mould n smells associated.

 

If possible could you install a slot drains along the entire length of the side of your house, and or an underground agg. pipe either side of the wall to collect water and moisture and divert it away from the side of the house? This would remove rainwater, and roof runoff quickly.

 

 

Thanks for your long reply, but I think you misunderstood me, or maybe I was not clear enough? I thought the pics would help making the whole story clear...

 

It's a wall along the street but not a wall of the house as such, and as I said above, there is a 1.2 to 1.5m space between the wall and the house - it's a pathway around the house. My problem is not that the wall "lets water filter through" but that the wall not being that high, a lot of rain gets over it during the rainy season, so the pathway gets very wet, sometimes even flooded. And the damage caused to the house is that the base of the house wall gets very wet also, which with time is not a very good thing either.

 

Further, there is no problem at all with ground moisture coming up. And I never said that I could not add pillars. I just said that there are pillars here and there along the wall to reinforce it, and that I could use those reinforcements as the base on which I could make my brick work wider, hence stronger. For example, the longest wall section (between the spaces with the decorative fencing) is 3.5 m long but that includes 3 such pillars / reinforcements.

 

I add a pic showing the wall in question (light grey). The "decorative" fencing is in blue with details painted gold. I have stacked up a few bricks on the right hand side to check the visual effect I can get, but I have not cemented any yet. I would anyway build the bricks higher, to level up with the top of the fencing. The house is behind (walls in pink / orange).

[gejohesch]

5 hours ago, gejohesch said:

You may be right in theory, but no one seems to care with that around where I live. That house and the wall by the street were built so many years back anyway, if anyone had an issue, we would have known a long time ago!

 

The distance from the house to the street wall varies between 1.5m and 1.2m. It runs at an angle, I don't know why but people don't seem to like straight lines nor parallel lines in this country! They don't seem to care much about vertical lines either, come to think about it.... ????

I was thinking more about the regulations and the distance between a house and the street. Everywhere in this country, one can see roadwork on the way, much of it widening the initial roads. One could not count how many houses were initially located a few metres away from a road and that all of a sudden find themselves that much closer to the "improved" road. That certainly also happens within the villages. It just happens that my wife's street is the widest one in her village, so I can conjecture that going back in time it may well have been narrower - and obviously the house would have been a bit further away from the initial street.

[brianthainess]

12 hours ago, gejohesch said:

You may be right in theory, but no one seems to care with that around where I live. That house and the wall by the street were built so many years back anyway, if anyone had an issue, we would have known a long time ago!

 

The distance from the house to the street wall varies between 1.5m and 1.2m. It runs at an angle, I don't know why but people don't seem to like straight lines nor parallel lines in this country! They don't seem to care much about vertical lines either, come to think about it.... ????

Their still trying to figure out why water won't go up hill, must be the Thai gravity. 

[colmx]

Surely the purpose of a boundary wall is to provide physical security or aesthetics and not prevent rain?

 

Can you not simply lay a path (concrete or brick) on the inside of the wall with a slight incline down to drain which rain water runs into to divert away the excess water and problem solved?

[gejohesch]

11 hours ago, colmx said:

Surely the purpose of a boundary wall is to provide physical security or aesthetics and not prevent rain?

 

Can you not simply lay a path (concrete or brick) on the inside of the wall with a slight incline down to drain which rain water runs into to divert away the excess water and problem solved?

"Surely the purpose of a boundary wall is to provide physical security or aesthetics and not prevent rain?"

 

Sure, by why not also some protection against the rain? .... and against the heat of the thai day time, by providing some shade? Is there a building code that prohibits that????

 

"Can you not simply lay a path (concrete or brick) on the inside of the wall with a slight incline down to drain which rain water runs into to divert away the excess water and problem solved?"

As said above, there is a pathway between the wall and the house. Its width varies between 1.2m at one end and 1.5m at the other end of the house. I already have some drainage in place. What I'm concerned about is 2 things:

1 - so much rain that regardless of the drainage, when it rains heavily (I suppose you know of the thai weather?), a lot of water washes over the wall (as it is) and in the long run, the house wall gets so regularly drenched that the paint gets damaged etc.

2 - maybe more importantly, as the house on that side faces due south, it gets a lot of direct sunshine. In a temperate climate, that would be a good thing, but (again) with the brutal thai climate, I personally would appreciate a bit more shade than the one provided by the wall as it is.

 

It is for these 2 reasons, and considering that the wall is actually made of a series of segments interrupted by the "decorative" fencing (no shade and no protection against the rain whatsoever), that I am planning a) to close up the fencing sections with acrylic sheets (I have started and it works well); and b) add height to the full wall sections with brickwork (what I believe is called "perforated façade" style).

 

All this may sound long and wordy. A look at the pics I have posted will make everything so much clearer.

[Elkski]

Just take out those nice decorative bar areas.  Fill it all in with brick and add to the top all the way across using a layer of steel in the first and 2nd to last course. Render it all over again to look like one homogeneous wall.  Cap with broken glass to look real Thai. 

[gejohesch]

17 minutes ago, Elkski said:

Just take out those nice decorative bar areas.  Fill it all in with brick and add to the top all the way across using a layer of steel in the first and 2nd to last course. Render it all over again to look like one homogeneous wall.  Cap with broken glass to look real Thai. 

Makes sense, but sounds a bot drastic. I actually like to keep those decorative bars ???? But thanks for your input!

[HighPriority]

You could probably use a ceramic tile adhesive (yanks call it thinset) if you don’t want a mortar joint.

A basic cement base (c1s1) type adhesive.

You could get a 2-3mm joint and have reasonable strength but there’s a reason why bricks are laid with sand/cement.

 

 

[Dan O]

I think your gonna find that adding to wall height isn't gonna stop rain fall from coming in as its open on the top still. You may want to consider add a awning of some type to stop the rain fall from creating a "wet path" around the house if tge goal is to keep a dry pathway

[HighPriority]

34 minutes ago, Dan O said:

I think your gonna find that adding to wall height isn't gonna stop rain fall from coming in as its open on the top still. You may want to consider add a awning of some type to stop the rain fall from creating a "wet path" around the house if tge goal is to keep a dry pathway

I think he wants to add some clear Perspex sheeting over the top ?

As for rain water seeping through the wall, that’s as simple as patching cracks and repainting the outside of the wall. 

[gejohesch]

1 hour ago, HighPriority said:

You could probably use a ceramic tile adhesive (yanks call it thinset) if you don’t want a mortar joint.

A basic cement base (c1s1) type adhesive.

You could get a 2-3mm joint and have reasonable strength but there’s a reason why bricks are laid with sand/cement.

 

 

Thanks. True, sand / cement mortar gets used for a good reason. But in my case, I'm not going to build a house or .... a Roman bridge with the bricks ????. I'm only increasing the wall height by 40 cm, and in sections varying between 1m and 3.5m with reinforcing pillars. I'm not designing to resist artillery fire!

 

I mention "Roman bridge" because Romans were the inventors of cement and mortar, believe it or not Roman stuff is still being studied for their quality, I remember reading about it recently, sthg about how they got some component at the right temperature before mixing or sthg like that (I did not go too deep into the explanations).

[gejohesch]

1 hour ago, Dan O said:

I think your gonna find that adding to wall height isn't gonna stop rain fall from coming in as its open on the top still. You may want to consider add a awning of some type to stop the rain fall from creating a "wet path" around the house if tge goal is to keep a dry pathway

You're right, but I'm not expecting to stop the rain altogether, just to get less of it coming over the wall. Plus, the intention is also to provide some extra shade. Finally, we are planning to renovate the roof next year or two, and by then we will make the eaves a bit longer, that should also help a bit.

 

Nothing is perfect unless one puts up the price. Being in Isan, I'm happy with half-way solutions. Sure, my wife's 2-houses compound needs a lot of work up, but it's already a very lovely place, spacious, clean and pleasant. ????

[Dan O]

3 hours ago, gejohesch said:

You're right, but I'm not expecting to stop the rain altogether, just to get less of it coming over the wall. Plus, the intention is also to provide some extra shade. Finally, we are planning to renovate the roof next year or two, and by then we will make the eaves a bit longer, that should also help a bit.

 

Nothing is perfect unless one puts up the price. Being in Isan, I'm happy with half-way solutions. Sure, my wife's 2-houses compound needs a lot of work up, but it's already a very lovely place, spacious, clean and pleasant. ????

Ah ok. Yes I'm all for doing things half way if it gets you to the point of doing a more permanent of full correction to the project. I'm the same way on our farm in NST. Keep everything going in a positive way while staging the more permanent repairs. 

[gejohesch]

10 hours ago, HighPriority said:

I think he wants to add some clear Perspex sheeting over the top ?

As for rain water seeping through the wall, that’s as simple as patching cracks and repainting the outside of the wall. 

"rain water seeping through the wall"

 

As said many times already, that is not the problem. It's a perfect tight and solid wall. The problem is that it only about 2m high in its "full" sections, and 1m high where it gets interrupted by the "decorative bars". It is a wall that separates the compound from the street, it's not the wall of the house itself.

The problem is that when it rains - and it tends to rain rather violently around here - a lot of water washes over it into the compound.

[HighPriority]

47 minutes ago, gejohesch said:

"rain water seeping through the wall"

 

As said many times already, that is not the problem. It's a perfect tight and solid wall. The problem is that it only about 2m high in its "full" sections, and 1m high where it gets interrupted by the "decorative bars". It is a wall that separates the compound from the street, it's not the wall of the house itself.

The problem is that when it rains - and it tends to rain rather violently around here - a lot of water washes over it into the compound.

My misunderstanding, I thought you were referring to the house wall.

One other point though, you talk of it not really mattering about how strong the wall is… you are very wrong on that point.

The footings/foundation of the wall is quite critical ESPECIALLY when you increase the height.

Your house walls for eg is basically a square box, the walls connect to and support each other, your fence wall is a straight line with no side walls to support it. It would normally have quite large and deep concrete footings to counter balance wind load for eg.

 

You say it’s only 40cm or so but I suggest that you lay on your back on the ground and ask your wife to drop a brick from 40cm above your head, and then repeat the experiment from the maximum height of your proposed wall…

 

In all seriousness imagine if your wall collapsed onto your wife or children or even worse someone else’s child ?

[gejohesch]

4 hours ago, HighPriority said:

My misunderstanding, I thought you were referring to the house wall.

One other point though, you talk of it not really mattering about how strong the wall is… you are very wrong on that point.

The footings/foundation of the wall is quite critical ESPECIALLY when you increase the height.

Your house walls for eg is basically a square box, the walls connect to and support each other, your fence wall is a straight line with no side walls to support it. It would normally have quite large and deep concrete footings to counter balance wind load for eg.

 

You say it’s only 40cm or so but I suggest that you lay on your back on the ground and ask your wife to drop a brick from 40cm above your head, and then repeat the experiment from the maximum height of your proposed wall…

 

In all seriousness imagine if your wall collapsed onto your wife or children or even worse someone else’s child ?

Hmmmm.... thanks for your useful comments.

The wall as is is certainly very strong, been there for several years and never moved - it is "anchored" by several pillars along its length (on average 1 every metre of "full" wall), a massive pillar at one end (leading to the gate on the other side) and at the other end by the wall that separates us from the neighbour.

I will make sure the "addition" is made strong. Certainly, I will use the existing pillars as a base to reinforce the brickwork as much as possible. Maybe I should consider placing metal rods at each end of the brick sections to add further strength?

[gejohesch]

5 hours ago, HighPriority said:

You say it’s only 40cm or so but I suggest that you lay on your back on the ground and ask your wife to drop a brick from 40cm above your head, and then repeat the experiment from the maximum height of your proposed wall…

 

I'm not going to mention your "experiment" to my wife, she might get the wrong idea.... ????????