Back kitchen wall piers which had to be replaced.

Support pier under the back wall.

Bottle jacks on cribbing lift the house off the damaged piers. We leveled off the ground and built a log-cabin so our bottle jacks would fit under main wall support timber. We wanted a pyramid shape so the whole thing would not tip under the load. Also, two jacks were used so a single jack failure would not cause the whole thing to come crashing down. Beside, we would be working beneath it.

After removing the old pier we prepared a new footer for our pier. Above Jim is using his home-made mortar tray. It lasted through the building of the foundation and the building of several piers.

Above Jim places a piece of tin between the concrete block footer and support timber. This prevents moisture from wicking into the wood from masonry material.

Good bricks from the piers were cleaned to be used later for veneering the foundation.

Pointing brick. The original brick mortar of sand and a little lime washed out of the joints. An internet search found the approved mixture of concrete, lime and sand. After cleaning out the joint, a scoop of mortar is pushed into the gap with a thin trowel. The joint is then finished (pointed) to look like the original. This was one of the projects Elizabeth worked on in spare time between other projects.