Soft Allentown, PA brick

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Nium

Nium

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Location
Bethlehem, PA
I've been doing some landlord meter installations in Allentown, PA recently and am becoming increasingly frustrated trying to secure the point of attachment because of the soft the mortar and brick of these old row homes. I have actually split bricks with lag anchors and would like any suggestions of a good fastener for these old bricks. Thanks all.
 
Maybe try drilling the hole and then apply some type of construction adhesive to bond the anchor to the brick. Just a thought.
 
I have made toggle bolts from 3/8 or 1/4" rod. Then use kindorf and straps.
Or if the attic's accesible you could put the bolt through and use 4" sq cover or even angle iorn on the inside.
 
chris1971 said:
Maybe try drilling the hole and then apply some type of construction adhesive to bond the anchor to the brick. Just a thought.
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That is a good idea. You could use a two part epoxy to anchor in threaded rod. Some of the epoxy you can buy will set in less than 15 min.
 
images

How about a new concrete drill bit, keep it straight
and true and some of these Lead Anchors ...
 
Nium said:
I've been doing some landlord meter installations in Allentown, PA recently and am becoming increasingly frustrated trying to secure the point of attachment because of the soft the mortar and brick of these old row homes. I have actually split bricks with lag anchors and would like any suggestions of a good fastener for these old bricks. Thanks all.
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Have you tried using Lag Shield Anchors? They work very well in brick. However in your case with soft brick it might actually split the brick. I know what your talking about is a real problem. Just recently I added an exterior GFI rec. at a 200 year old local business which had brick walls 4 courses thick. When I drilled through the wall the first course seemed soft but held together ok but the middle two courses looked like red play-doh coming off the hammer drill bit. Kind of scary! Epoxy might be the ticket for what your application because expanding fasteners tend to fracture brick.
 
Butter soft

Butter soft

I have tried Lag Shield Anchors in the mortar joint near the top of the building and had the last few courses actually start to lift up (just the immediate bricks above the lag anchor). Moved the lag anchor to the brick and it just started to disintegrate the further I drove in the lag bolt. It is amazing the difference between the old (at least a hundred years I'd guess) and newer brick. I don't even need a hammer drill to make a hole in the old brick it's so soft. Sometimes I worry the hammer drill or rotary hammer is gonna really mess up the brick.:roll: For little stuff I'll use plastic inserts in the old brick but with the forces on the point of attachment definitely want something solid especially when its a tension force from the point of attachment instead of being a shear force. I try to use the old point of attachments from the original Knob & Tube wiring because they're longer then newer ones so I feel they help to spread out the forces more, instead of concentrating it on two or three bricks.

Usually the construction is an outer course of brick with a hollow space then an inner course of brick, but not always. I tend to use a slightly smaller drill bit then the manufacturer suggests to get a tighter fit.

A lot of the time the attic is the 3rd floor and is finished.

I use to know what the bricks were made of but it escapes me at the moment when I remember I'll post it up. It seems like I remember the material was locally quarried.
 
I believe here that the POA and bracing has to withstand 600# pull. Doesn't sound like those redbrick buildings would handle that.
 
I think the best solution would be to open a hole in the interior wall, and use a through-bolt with washers and a nut.
 
I think ceb58 is right - you need to spread the load over a wider vertical area and strut can do that. I've also used thick galvanized stock (comes in 3' lengths at HD or hardware stores) to make something like a backplate/spreader for attachments. You also probably need to stay away from the first 5-6 top courses since the old mortar is weak. Your main strength is coming from the weight of the courses compressing the ones lower down.
 
if you want to go the epoxy route, try Epcon C6.

you have to purchase a specific applicator gun for it; cost us $160 for that, plus $55 for 18oz of the epoxy. and you have to get a nozzle that's a few bucks extra.

i used it a couple of weeks ago to secure threaded rods in existing concrete for a pole base. curing time is the only downside; it was 54deg here and recommended curing time was two hours.
 
One day I came into a room and noted that the plumber was using a standard hole saw on a newly poured floor (3 month set). I thought this guys going to be here for a while.

This was a 4" hole saw on a dewalt 18 volt, it frankly didn't seem to take any more time than a heavy grade boring drill. I did see the saw afterwards and there were no teeth.

;)

I just wanted to throw that out, for all thats worth...
 
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