How bad is the situation with this brickwork?

[Brickadvice]

Viewed a property today. Here is the brickwork round the back.
Is it fixable and ball-park how expensive do you reckon it’d be?

Thanks in advance!

some more photos!

It’s a victorian terrace, the main house is made of stone, this back area is an extension.

Honestly it wouldn't concern me - sort of goes with an old house. If you are worried, a bit of repointing wouldn't cost much.

Oh thanks Furier! I don’t know much about buildings and it looks such a crumbling mess. All that cement making me worry it’s about to fall apart!

I wouldn’t be overly concerned but it would be a good idea to rake out that cement mortar and repoint it with a more traditional, possibly lime based mortar mix because I might worry about the long term impact of the bricks crumbling due to moisture damage as a result of using a hard, impervious mortar. You often see just the outline of the cement mortar with the brick face or stone having crumbled away - moisture is redirected to the softer material which ends up being the brick or stone when it should be the mortar. It would look nicer too but I guess it depends on how much repointing is needed.

If you're happy to have a go at repointing yourself then not a problem at all.

If you're planning on hiring a brickie, good luck. We asked loads to repoint an 8ft wall a few metres long. Only one wanted the job, quoted £2k+ and the earliest they could do it was 5 months away. We did it ourselves after learning how to repoint from youtube videos.

Having looked again, overall the condition of the bricks don’t look too bad so it might be interesting to know when it was repointed like that to see how long the bricks have mostly been unaffected. Are there any damp issues behind those walls? Some of it doesn’t look too dissimilar from my house to be honest and we still bought it! I do plan on repointing areas though over time both for long term impact and appearance.

I move into a house tomorriw that requires similar repointing. I didn’t put me off! Good luck

I’d be more worried about how high the paving is compared with the drain. Suggests someone may have covered up the damp proof course with the paving and whatever layers are below it.
Any signs of damp inside?

Not too bad at all, get quotes, shop around, and remember things were built to last back in the good ol days!

Thanks everyone, really helpful to hear it’s probably not as bad as I thought it was!

There also a fern sprouting from the roof. Ferns like damp places so perhaps not a good indication of what is going on up there!

The brickwork though is a bit untidy and has clearly suffered some issues with damp / water damage (first pics) but otherwise I can see any major issues. The brick structure does look a bit "thrown together" though - it would not surprise me to learn that it's of ooor construction in general.

@Sarah2384

The brickwork though is a bit untidy and has clearly suffered some issues with damp / water damage (first pics) but otherwise I can see any major issues. The brick structure does look a bit "thrown together" though - it would not surprise me to learn that it's of ooor construction in general.

This occurred to me too. It doesn’t look the best in terms of original construction and I would be worried about damp issues.