Disassembling a Brick House from the Inside.

[aNYCdb]

I'm working on a new project and one of the things I've encountered is that part of the house is brick. As you can see that brick is missing in places completely and the framing (which seems to have run amongst the brick is not in good shape). Is there any reason that I wouldn't be able to remove the brick and simply beef up the walls with additional framing?

 

[Sparky617]

The section that doesn't go to the ceiling doesn't appear to be doing anything since nothing is supported by it. Regarding the other section to the left, I can't tell from the picture.

 

[JoeD]

There could be reasons the brick was needed such as fire stopping or support column.

 

[Sparky617]

This looks like balloon framing, I assume no blocking between floors. Is this an exterior wall?

 

[aNYCdb]

Correct, balloon framing. This is an exterior wall and there is no blocking between floors. Basically its a brick wall laid within the wall cavity that (if it ever did) does not support anything at the top currently.

 

[Sparky617]

As long as the walls are open, I'd install blocking at the floor to act as a fire block between floors.

 

[bud16415]

I have been trying to think of reasons the bricks would have been put inside the walls to start with and if nothing is being supported by them it seems really strange. I have never seen this in practice having owned and restored several 1800s homes. It made me wonder if it was done to add some thermal mass to the walls or as a form of insulation. We know now stone and brick are not exactly great insulation materials but are good thermal mass. So I wondered if maybe lining a south wall and painting the wall black would soak up some heat and release it at night or something. I started looking around at that idea and found the process is called “Brick Nogging”. In the 1800s brick was really cheap in some area where brick was made and odd bricks were even cheaper.



I did a bit more research and found this link that explains the mystery.



Brick Insulation, Brick Lined Walls in Wood Framed Homes Brick Wall Liner (Nogging)

 

[aNYCdb]

Wow, thank you. This is exactly what I'm seeing (for a second I thought that they actually had a picture of my house there) and the house was built in the 1800's in Greene County, NY.

 

[bud16415]

My first house had just clapboard siding on the outside nailed right to the balloon framing and then on the inside wood lath and then a good inch buildup of horse hair plaster. The siding held up amazing for the age and I figured it was because of the air flow and the only drafty places were around outlets that were added and cracks in the plaster. I used a lot of can spray foam fixing drafts. The house we are in now also balloon framed had 1” rough sawed sheathing and then wood siding. someplace in the 1950s they added tar paper and then asbestos siding tiles. The tiles are as hard as glass and have a green glass like finish that looks like the day they were made. Then someplace around 2000 that was covered with .5” thick fan fold foam and then vinyl siding and all the window trim was built out and covered in aluminum. On the inside was lath and plaster and then I furred it out 1” put 1” foam in the spaces and sealed it in with spray foam and then .5” drywall. Let me tell you these walls are thick and when I replaced windows/doors I had to make really long extension jambs. So far it feels pretty warm.



Didn’t find any bricks though.



If you are ripping out the bricks and removing the plaster I would be doing the fire stops as recommended above and also adding insulation of some kind. Might be a good area for having it spray foamed.

 

[aNYCdb]

You can see the wood siding from the inside and on the outside its that weird 1/8 inch reflective sheet then aluminum siding. I'm definitely going to add fire blocking, trying to decide between dimple board with spray foam or bumping out the wall a bit to do rigid foam boards (with can foam around the perimeter of each cavity) and then Roxul (which also makes a good fire block).

 

[Sparky617]

Spray foam will do wonders to sealing up your leaky home.