Hi is there anyway to stop the cement from being pushed off as the brick is pushed in it just seems pointless putting any on the brick as it just scraped off tried using a pointing gun and a grout bag but it's too course it wouldnt come out so i couldn't hardly get any cement in how can I force it in any tools out there or gadget I can use thanx.
I cover the surrounding brick faces and new brick with duck tape. Sometimes wedge the new brick with something like a stone to get spacing correct. Keep pushing in cement. When set or dry remove tape. As for cement sticking I 4-1 pva the opening and new brick edges. Splash of pva in cement water mix. Seems to help greatly with sticking and workability of cement. No picture of tape over bricks. I keep forgetting to take one.
Perp joints on existing, in a wedge shape but set slightly back from the face. Use a flat jointing iron to ram the mortar in, you’ll never get the joints as full as they were hence raking is preferred over toothing And don’t wear gloves
Here you go taped up face bricks. Can really chuck and ram muck in while no worries about messing the brick faces up. Makes the job so easy.
As Abrickie says,wedge shape the joints. Also smear some mortar at the top of the hole in a wedge. That way the mortar won't get pushed off the top of the brick as you push it in.
You need a Tuck or Finger pointer, which is a pointing trowel with a very narrow blade of around 10mm wide, and designed for this purpose. this will allow you to push the cement right back into the joint.
Before inserting the new brick butter the two open ends of the existing brickwork with the mortar, but use the trowel to butter it at an angle like a wedge, that way when you insert the new brick it eases in and squashes the mortar together with the brick, rather than just pushing it back and out into the cavity. Butter the top of the aperture the same, or top of the brick if it's easier for you, as Stuart mentioned too. Use a brick jointer or Frenchman/tuck pointer to push more mortar into joints to compact it best you can.