I live in Norfolk and have an old barn near the coast (about 500 meters: I only mention this as salt mist may be relevant to the discussion). The barn is built with quite soft Norfolk brick and lime mortar. some are quite crumbly. I will be repairing the building over the next 3 years, replacing some brick, where they have determinate do away and reprinting with hydraulic lime mortar.
My question is that much of the building will still want to absorbe a lot of water as the old bricks are so soft, so is there a solution I can use that’s ‘clear’ so as to create a bonded layer over the brick surface (and mortar) to protect them from further water and frost damage yet maintaining it to pass the maximum amount of water vapour. I do not want to trap moister in the building fabric.
Your advice will be most welcome.
Protecting brick surface from water and frost damage
Cornish Lime Changed status to publish July 9, 2018