Expert: Dan Griffin - 1/9/2010

Question
Hi we put a 24" overhang on a commercial building addition .we were going to stucco the side now they want to use bricks by putting an angle iron 36' wide to carry bricks. The wall would be about 12 or 13 feet high .The problem is they want to bolt it to the wood .It doesnt sound good to me what do you think? Wont wood shirnk and swell and cause problems.

Answer
Tony, this is not unheard of since the newest CABO books for residential work. There are certainly several disclaimers to consider this approach, and it will all need to clear AHJ and engineering.  Here is some reference:

http://www.masonryconstruction.com/industry-news.asp?sectionID=0&articleID=25040...

I, too would not consider this normal or desirable for anything commercial, but I defer to an engineer saying it is OK.  I would certainly prefer bolting the ledger iron to concrete or fastening to steel.  The prime concern has to do with roll over movement in the bearing.

Here is some additional information from a source that I consider gospel about brick issues:

http://www.gobrick.com/html/frmset_thnt.htm

read in particular the link about 28A "adding brick veneer to existing. . . ."

There are, of course, glue on thin brick veneer systems that would excel in this condition.  They refaced an entire shopping center here with one and it looks great and has stood for well over 10 years.