The owners’ committee at this Ashgrove unit complex had a problem that was getting worse by the month. Bricks on the northern and western faces of the building were crumbling — not cracking, crumbling. Entire sections of brickwork were eroding away, and the damage was accelerating.

The committee had spent months trying to find a bricklayer to replace the affected bricks. Nobody would commit — and with good reason.

New bricks won’t survive in masonry that’s saturated with moisture and salt.

The building is a two-storey brick walk-up — common across Ashgrove’s older residential streets — with a lower-ground level built into the slope. The northern and western faces cop the worst of Brisbane’s weather — afternoon sun and driving rain in summer, then long dry stretches that pull moisture from the brickwork through evaporation.

That cycle forces dissolved salts to crystallise inside the brick face, not just in the mortar. Over time, the salt crystals expand and shatter the brick from within. This is salt attack — and it doesn’t stop until the moisture source is removed.

Built before modern damp-proofing standards, the original damp-proof course had either failed or was never installed. Moisture from the ground was wicking upward through the masonry and feeding the salt cycle that was destroying the brickwork.

No bricklayer could fix this — because the bricks weren’t the problem. The moisture was.

Small holes were drilled at close intervals along the base of each affected wall. DampBlock™ — a silicone-based cream — was injected into the mortar course. The cream spreads through the surrounding masonry by capillary action and cures to form a continuous waterproof barrier within the wall, creating a new damp-proof course without excavation or membrane installation.

With the moisture source cut off, the salt cycle that had been destroying the brickwork was broken. The bricks that had been crumbling were no longer being attacked from within. Once the walls had dried, the worst-affected bricks could finally be replaced — this time into masonry that was dry and stable enough to hold them.

The DampBlock™ treatment was completed in a single day.

The committee had spent months looking for a bricklayer to solve a problem no bricklayer could fix. The bricks were a symptom. The moisture was the cause. With the new DPC in place, the conditions that destroyed the brickwork no longer exist — and any replacement bricks now sit in a wall that won’t eat them alive.

Every DampBlock™ treatment is backed by a 20-year warranty. Seeing bricks crumbling at the base of your walls? It could be salt attack from rising damp. A free assessment tells you for sure.