In a rendered wall, one cannot see the brick structure, so doing a neat job, as in the Cambridge System, is not an option. Christina Day had 9 Swift boxes in the gable of her house in Haverhill (see
here). Circumstances conspired so that she had to move to Lode, leaving four occupied boxes behind. Her new home is a one storey house on the end of a terrace with a gable 6 metres high.
So we inserted 6 boxes in her gable by using a 78mm diameter core drill (acquired from Screwfix) through the render and outer leaf and a 107mm core drill through the inner leaf. The entrance was reduced with mortar to a half-moon 30mm high, with a ramp across the width of the outer leaf.
The 50mm cavity is bridged with a 100mm pipe.
The risks in this project were that we could have hit a wall tie, or the render could have been laid on steel mesh - but fortunately we encountered neither of these.
We did not anticipate that the bricks in the outer leaf would have a 'frog' facing down, leaving holes in the entrance passage which needed making good ('frog' = a depression made in a brick). Nor did we anticipate the state of the inner leaf, with much of the mortar loose, needing substantial repointing.
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| 6 neat holes in the gable |
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| 6 installed Swift boxes with a satisfied Bill Murrells |
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| Close up of entrance exterior |
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| Close up of entrance interior |
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| Installed Swift box, with perspex back and cover removed. |
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| Section through computer model |
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| Tool used to fashion entrances |
