On a Bronx building the brick trouble is often not spread across the wall. It gathers around the holes cut into it later, the air conditioner sleeves, the windows made bigger or smaller, the openings filled in. That is where we look first.
Most Bronx apartment buildings have been altered many times since they were built. Air conditioners arrived through the wall, windows were resized, openings were closed up. Each change cut into brickwork that was never designed for it, and much of that cutting was done by trades whose job was the appliance or the window, not the wall around it.
As brickwork contractors in the Bronx we survey those alterations before anything else. A crack above a sleeve, loose brick beside a resized window or a line around a filled-in opening usually has a clear cause, and dealing with that cause is what stops the same repair being needed again in a few years.
Where the wall was cut is usually where the brick has suffered.
A sleeve cut through a Bronx wall without proper support leaves the brick above it cracked or loose, and gaps around its edges let water in. Damaged units around a sleeve are cut out and renewed as brick replacement.
An opening made wider or taller removes brick that was carrying the wall above. Where the brickwork beside or over a resized Bronx window has moved, the fix is rebuilding, which falls under brick repair and installation.
Infill laid into an old window or door without being bonded into the brick around it moves on its own, and the outline cracks on both sides. Where only the joints at those edges have opened on a Bronx wall, brick pointing closes them.
Once the cause is found, the work falls into one of these.
Sleeves, resized windows, filled-in openings and anything else cut into the brick after the Bronx building went up. Most owners are surprised by the count once it is written down.
A cut opening needs support over it. Where there is none, or it has given way, the brick overhead is the next thing to fail on the Bronx wall.
Gaps around a sleeve and an air conditioner dripping onto the wall both keep brick wet. We follow that water down the Bronx elevation to see how far below the alteration the damage actually runs.
What an owner can expect from a brick contractor in the Bronx who starts with the alterations.
Whoever cut the hole for the air conditioner was there to fit the air conditioner. Whoever resized the window was there for the window. The brick around both was somebody else’s problem, and it usually stayed that way until it cracked. Repairing that damage without dealing with the missing support or the water running down from the alteration puts the same crack back before long. On a Bronx wall the useful question is not only what is damaged but what was cut there, and when.
Buildings altered many times over run through Fordham, Belmont, Morrisania, University Heights, Mott Haven and Kingsbridge, and the same survey applies to all of them.
See masonry contractor Bronx for every exterior service we offer in the borough, or brickwork contractor NYC for how we tell which part of a brick wall has failed.
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Yes, if it was cut in without proper support or sealing. The brick above can crack or sag, and gaps around the sleeve let rain into the wall. On Bronx buildings, where many sleeves were added decades after construction, the brick around them is one of the first places we check.
Usually because the opening was cut without anything properly holding up the brick above it. The load that used to pass through that brick now has nowhere to go. Repairing the crack alone does not last on a Bronx wall unless the missing support is dealt with too.
Because the infill was laid into the opening without being bonded into the brick around it. The two parts then move separately, and the outline of the old window cracks on both sides. On Bronx buildings this is common wherever openings were closed up during later renovations.
Over time, yes. Water running from an air conditioner onto the face keeps the brick below it wet for months each year, and that brick wears far faster than the rest. On a Bronx elevation the damage often runs several feet below the unit itself.
The opening is left behind and has to be dealt with properly. It needs either a correctly supported new sleeve or infill bonded into the surrounding brick. On a Bronx wall, simply filling the hole without bonding it in produces the cracked outline seen around old window infills.
