I have an issue with 4 courses of spalled bricks. Some have lost just the face and maybe 2cm of brick. The worst ones may be as much as 4cm. Bodgit builders hacked away the 4 surrounding the clay soil pipe connector, and the longways 1st run on top of the foundations.
There are simply too many (100) to knock out the fails and replace
My thought is to do a section of 6 at a time using a No More Piles wall plate for security. Would I be better off doing 3courses of brick then a concrete lintel, or 4 brick courses.
Cavity wall, 2 floors, impy bricks, working effectively below ground

Acrows are out of the equation as they are way too long

My thinking is a 1.6 lintel, slate packed would be stronger or at least as strong as brick, quicker to fit and easier to pack

They used shite bricks to get to level, all of the bricks higher up are sound.

I know why they spalled, I have addressed the issues, I don’t want to go down the road of planning and building control as they might go crazy and want footings revealed, exclusion zones, permits to work etc

8mtr run, approx 42 bricks, I just think a pre stressed lintel would add strength, spread load better etc, as I am only doing the outer skin I really hope the inner is sound, but cannot rebuild that so need to do the outer leaf properly
Last building Co who did the construction work just puddingd in some 1st fix plaster and sand and cement top skim, yeeee haaaa, although a lot of the spalling has not got worse in the 30 years since it was last bodged

Not a structural engineer but 2 points.

1. What’s the cause of the spalling? Portland pointing on soft brick originally built with lime mortor?

2. For the job look at how underpinning is done. 4 sections I think. Work in some sequence that I forget to dig out and fill in.

I am a structural engineer, now retired, but since my experience is mostly in big concrete stuff I’m looking at your wall from basic principles. Some questions to clarify the problem:

What’s above the area you want to work on? A brick wall can support itself over a gap to some degree, by arching, but not if it has openings in it.

What are impy bricks?

How old is the wall? Is it cement mortar or lime?

Do you know if there are ties between the inner and outer skins?

The purpose of any temporary support is to stop the wall above moving; if it moves, it cracks, and that’s a permanent loss of capacity (more so with cement than lime). A lintel that’s one brick deep over an 8m span will deflect so much that it will be useless. Can you get access to the inside of the wall to put needles through? There are proprietary solutions to working from one side, such as Brickbrace – I haven’t used them and I’d want to see their certification if I did. Regarding Brickbrace I don’t immediately see how one scaffold tube can be stiff enough to provide support to the wall above. Regarding Acrows being too long, it’s some way of introducing preload that’s important not the height, so in principle car jacks could work provided the capacity is adequate and they’re on a firm base. What is the ground like?

Regarding Building Regulations, I know you don’t want to involve Building Control, but they are a legal requirement. You need approval for underpinning. Whether what you’re planning would count as underpinning, being below ground and involving temporary support, but not affecting the foundations, is an interesting question. Another reason for requiring approval is if the work, at any stage, results in a compliant structure becoming non-compliant – so if you are making the wall less stable during the work, you need approval.

You’ll need some way to get the load into the top course, or accept some settlement when it takes up the load. Whether that matters depends on many things. Slate packing, as you mention, is one way. Cutting bricks to a slope so that you can push them into the wall to ensure full mortar contact, but that doesn’t put vertical load in.

Spalled for the following reasons
Soakaway built 90cm from wall , old school hole in th ground filled with busted bricks
Flower bed built up to wall on North face of building
Broken casement above ground allowing tap water to divert into footings
Render to cover up spalled bricks pulled away from wall enough to allow water down between render and lower brick courses
Rubbish local built bricks with bad reputation, made using brackish water
lower 4 courses different bricks to rest of wall

I might be being a bit dim here but what are you trying to achieve? Are we talking at ground level below dpc or above dpc? Are you replacing the bricks for cosmetic or structural reasons, why use lintels? And wtf is a no more piles wall plate.
Impy bricks being 73mm I presume greybeard.

And don’t involve building regs ffs!

What are impy bricks? Imperial as opposed to metric

How old is the wall? Is it cement mortar or lime? 1935- 38

Do you know if there are ties between the inner and outer skins? Yes , opened up cavity to check condition before.

The idea was to use a lintel to top off 3 courses of engineering bricks ( that were not used )
However , I am thinking that this is way beyond DIY , but to do it proffessionally would involve BC , permits to work, safety scaffolds, vacant property , 10 odd Acrows with wall tongues, foundation surveys ,

Failed bricks are 5 courses below the DPC , and were mostly below ground level. I have dug down to top of footings, House on slight slope hence the need to build up 1 side

No more Piles is a steel device to support a void in brickwork, basically angle iron , triangulated supports, bolted to wall , with diagonal bolt tensioners that pre load the span , for use where acrows access is limited.

This is defo structual . If it was cosmetic I would use slips .

No need to shore up just take out 4 bricks long, you have to be pretty competent at building bricks and toothing them, filling the holes up with mortar and then there is the tricky mortar bed at the top, banging in slate is ok if you do it the next day. You will just upset the bricks if the mortar is still soft and they wont be happy. The next section to be cut out will be opposite end or read a brickwork book from years gone by it will show the sequence

So it’s going to be buried again? You shouldn’t really have any cavity below dpc to be fair. You also really don’t need permits to work or a vacant house. The Intel idea wont be of any benefit imho as firstly they’re not imperial so you’ll end up with rather a lot of packing. Obviously you cant use acrow and strong boys as there is nothing to found your acrow off other than muck. Is the original found concrete and how much does it project out from the outer leaf? If you’ve got enough projection could you use it to build an extra outer leaf below ground with the fourth course tied in using a header chopped in say every 450 or even 225? This with plenty of 3/1 gobbo haunchesd up against the spalled bricks would protect the outer face. You could even introduce a mastic filler on the top edge to stop any water penetration. Your house is not going to fall down.
The other option is to chop a load of halves out and mass fill with concrete up against the existing brickwork.

Is it still standing?

Yes. Going to pudding in a strong mix with sbr and do alight skim scratch coat
Then after a week do a top coat to 12mm battern depth again with sbr mix. Then flute a 45 degree chamfer after breaking off the battern
Then paint it with bitumin paint
Then back fill with 12 to 20mm gravel
Then re go the soakaway that the cowboys positioned 90cm from the footings