Repairing Holes Right Through Wall After new Plumbing and Heating Installed Brickwork, drystone walling, render are a few subjects covered here. Click here to post questions and get answers

[mje1708]

Hi
I am restoring an appartment. The whole plumbing and heating system is being replaced. The plumbers have done their first fit in the bathrooms - dug channels for pipes etc and installed hidden cistern. Only thing is that the wall between the bathroom and the next room was pretty thin. In making their channels they have gone right through to the other side. Some of the holes are pretty large - a foot square maybe. I need to fill these holes. All the advice I can find online relates to filling a hole where it doesn't go right through to the other side - more indentations than real holes. The wall is made of a sort of hollow brick with render then plaster on top. It is obviously not a supporting wall.

Basically how do I best fill these holes ? Can I just fill them with some kind of cement product or do I need to reinforce it with some kind of steel mesh? Will the "cement" be secure enough just "pushed" into the hole and then covered with plaster. I am saying "cement" but obviously need to do some research on the best product. The appartment is in Italy and so I need to see what products are on the market here.

Thanks for any help.

Mike

[welsh brickie]

its a clay terracotta block they use, very easy to cut with a trowel, I would cut one to size and fill the hole and use sand and cement over the top to plaster it

[mje1708]

Thanks for the advice. I guess you just put them together like normal bricks with "cement" in between?

What about holes where it is difficult to build up using these "bricks"? Is it OK to just fill them with "cement" without using any kind of reinforcing mesh? I haven't had much experience of using cement or similar products and so I don't know whether it sets solid enough or whether it would "fall out" if anyone leans on it (although most of the holes are around ankle or knee height).

Also somebody suggested putting a piece of plasterboard over one of the bigger holes (where they have put the concealed cistern) and then just plastering over it to match the surrounding area. This sort of makes sense because in the end they used the plasterboard version of the concealed cistern because they thought the wall wasn't robust enough to take the standard solid masonry version.

Excuse my ignorance. Any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks again

Mike

[welsh brickie]

just throw a sand and cement mix over the newly filled in hole, the blocks are very dry, so throwing it, to make it stick is the best solution.
Overfill the hole, and using a batten or level, to scrape off the excess, and use a finish plaster to finish the wall