Brick anchors
on a door surround?
Brick anchors are one of the items in a masons tool bag that can be used in a variety of situations. Sometimes you just don't know when those situations may arise.
I have to admit though, this is the first time I had been called in to apply anchors to a loose door surround... let me explain.
A client called complaining that a new front door she installed in her home was loose. The door looked great but the bricks surrounding the door had somehow come loose during the installation process.
"Well that could be a very simple or a very difficult project." I speculated as she explained.
My experience with door installers has not been good and they are not the most careful tradesmen that I know. Many have a bad habit of prying against the bricks when removing the old door which can dislodge the masonry, especially if the surrounding masonry is decorative and is not bonded. This is a no-no as you can imagine.
I receive many calls a year for damaged bricks around door frames.
Well I got the clients photos and after I examined them, I realized rather quickly, that the repair could be a bit more difficult that I imagined. You see, the photos showed that there was only 8” of brick above the door opening which isn’t very much.
Why is that a problem you may wonder?
Well in order to install brick anchors one has to use a heavy hammer drill to drill the holes through the brick so that the anchors can be installed. Bricks are fairly easy to drill thru if there is a whole wall of bricks around your drill hole, to act as a kind of shock absorber for the chipping hammer.
When there are very few bricks to absorb the shock of the tool then the bricks can fall apart quite readily and then you can have a real mess.
So it can be a challenge.
Finished brick anchor installation into the existing door surround, tuck pointed and stained to match the existing masonry. Just waiting now for the remainder of the door trim to be installed. A seamless repair… looks good doesn’t it?
‘Well another seamless repair completed.’ I thought to myself as I waved goodbye to my client and drove down the street, onto another new and exciting repair adventure.
