That time a freeze cracked my brick wall overnight

I was working on a small garden wall out in Lancaster back in December. Finished it up on a Friday and it looked solid, but that night the temp dropped to 10 degrees. I came back Saturday morning and saw a hairline crack running through three whole bricks near the top. Turns out I didn't leave enough space for expansion in the mortar joints, and the trapped water just froze and pushed everything apart. I had to pull those bricks out and re-lay them with a wider gap and some backer rod. It was maybe 4 hours of extra work I didn't plan for. Has anyone else dealt with freeze damage on a wall you thought was done right?

2 comments

2 Comments

lindal139d ago

Man that's brutal. Exact same thing happened to me with a patio wall out in Reading last February. Thought I had it sealed up proper but nope. Woke up to a whole section that looked like someone took a sledgehammer to it from the inside. Ended up having to pull eight bricks and redo the whole corner. Cold weather masonry is just a gamble no matter how careful you get.

adam_patel9d ago

lol bro that's rough. I did a retaining wall out in Pittsburgh last winter and thought I was golden with the drainage, but nope. Woke up to a block that looked like it sneezed itself right out of the wall, just sitting there all cockeyed on the ground. Took me like 3 hours to rebuild that section and I'm pretty sure my neighbor filmed me swearing at it. At least your crack was a clean one, mine looked like the wall had a stroke.