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The day a brick fell 30 feet and landed right next to my truck
I was sweeping a flue on a old house in Portland last Tuesday. Got the job done fine, but when I was packing up, a loose brick from the top of the chimney just let go and smashed into the ground maybe 2 feet from my bumper. No warning, just dust and a big thud. Scared the crap out of me, but at least it missed the truck. Has anyone else had close calls like that from old masonry?
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jesse_burns816d ago
Goodness, that would have made me jump right out of my skin. I actually just read a piece in an old issue of Fine Homebuilding about how those old chimneys in the Pacific Northwest are real ticking time bombs because of all the freeze-thaw cycles. The mortar gets soft and crumbly after a few decades, and a loose brick is just waiting for the right moment. You're lucky it didn't hit the truck or you, because that kind of weight from that height can do some serious damage. I'd check the rest of the chimney for more loose ones before you go back there again.
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I saw a similar thing happen in 2019 down in Astoria. An old Victorian was getting its chimney repointed and a brick came loose during a storm, took out the tailgate of a parked F-150. I hear what you're saying about the freeze-thaw cycles, but honestly, Portland's weather is milder than people think. We don't get the deep freezes like the Midwest. Most of these old chimneys have been standing since the 1920s with the same lime mortar. The real problem isn't the weather, it's when someone uses modern Portland cement to patch an old chimney. That hard cement traps moisture and makes the old brick spall. Soft lime mortar is actually better because it lets the masonry breathe and move with the house. I'd be more worried about a bad repair job than the rain.
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