Cleaning brick farm houses

Kind of a off topic question,
I inherited a house on the farm that was my grandparents. Old brick farmhouse built somewhere around 1886. Anyways, when they moved into it back in 1963 they decided to cement the outside walls instead of repointing the grout. Im looking to begin redoing the house but not sure how to tackle this portion of it. Im going to hire the repointing out but was wondering if I should even touch the cement thats starting to crumble and flake off. Has anyone had this scenario before?

Do you mean you need to remove stucco?

Let me take a stab at this.

You have a brick wall built in the 1800's most likely with bricks that could have been made on site but even if factory made are substandard to todays bricks.
Then someone covered the brick with what looks like a thin layer of concrete.
You believe they did this because they did not want to go through the trouble of repointing the motor joints.
When in fact they may have done this to cover and protect the substandard bricks.
Now you want to remove the crumbling concrete layer and repair it to look like a new brick home.

If I am correct so far your plan will never work.
The brick is substandard and will not hold up to the weather over the years no matter how well the mortar joints are repaired.

My house is built with those same soft bricks. I needed some wall insulation so I furred it out with 2X2, put up some 2 inch insulation board and covered it with steel siding.

My house looks exactly like what John has posted. Bricks were fired on site. Can tell by noticing sone have burn marks as can be seen in his pict. Im sure my house is much older than what you have and the bricks are still good. The mortar is still serviceable and im pretty sure it has never had any repair. It could be that someone just wanted a different look. A young man has a similar brick house near me that was painted white. Again someone wanted a different look. He had the house sand blasted to remove the paint and did have to do some mortar repairs. You will have to do a lot of investigation to know what you really have.

So your saying to tear it down?

The bricks from it came from Sandusky ohio. At least thats what my great grandparents said. The house is painted as well.

A lot has to do with the quality of the clay the brick were made from,some 100+ year old brick houses in my area that are still solid with brick made from the red clay in my area.Pack that stuff in a mold with a little moisture and it'll last from now on.

(quoted from post at 03:48:27 06/11/23) A lot has to do with the quality of the clay the brick were made from,some 100+ year old brick houses in my area that are still solid with brick made from the red clay in my area.Pack that stuff in a mold with a little moisture and it'll last from now on.

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Where I grew up there had been a brickyard nearby. It was on Brickyard Road. The brick strewn all around was red. The clay was blue.

[b:654c4848f0]So your saying to tear it down[/b:654c4848f0]

NO. Not at all.

What I am saying is you need to proceed with caution as the quality of the bricks can not be assumed good.
Bricks made 150 years ago have large variations in quality based on where how and with what ingrediencies they were made with.
A brick made in the deep south where quality clay is hard to come by will be totally different than bricks made in other areas.
Are the walls like the picture above where the exterior and interior wall are the same bricks or is the brick just a facia will also come into play.
If your bricks are of low quality the mortar joints may be the least of your worries and it might be better to repair the concrete facia to protect the bricks.
If your bricks are of good quality then yes repointing the mortar joints to save the brick wall will be a good idea.

Personally I would leave the concrete facia in tact. Might take off the flaking pieces and repoint the exposed mortar.
Removing the concrete facia may do more damage than good in the spots where it is still stuck to the wall good.
But that is a decision that will have to be made from a job to job after a close examination of the wall conditions not available over the internet.

I have seen many buildings in our area built in the 1800's with brick made on site.
They have held up very well.
Most of the brick I underpinned our house with were locally fired brick made in our community.
They are very good to this day.
There are clear sealers that can be sprayed on old brick walls that protect them from soaking up moisture.
After it dries, you can't even tell it was used.
Here are some brick that are under our house that came from a chimney that was built in the 1880's.
I turned them up sideways to get more coverage.
Richard in NW SC

A lot depends on what you want it to look like when done. My personal choice would be to repair/replace the stucco coating. That's mainly because of the brick issues others have mentioned, soft, not hard fired etc. A lot of older brick was never intended to be exposed to weather, as it was intended as filler behind a course of harder brick.

Locally there is a neat older building, originally a small hotel that has been destroyed because someone tried repointing with the wrong mix. The outer 1/4-1/2 of over half the bricks has peeled off. The bricks absorb water then new hard mortar held moisture behind it. Because the portland mix bonded so well freezing pushed the brick surface off. Mess on the downtown sidewalk and really terrible look. It's been vacant now for 10 years or so as nobody wants to invest in the repair. About all that could be done now is a stucco overlay.

On the other side of the street is a similar building that was repointed correctly wild a lime mix appropriate for the brick that still looks great.