Patch hole in interior hollow brick wall

So after ignoring for way too long the obvious water damage in our guest room from the adjacent shower, we’re finally going to be blessed by our first post Covid house guests so I decided to get around to this.

since the bathroom is tiled I decided to inspect from the bedroom side to minimize tiles I’d have to replace.

once I cleared some of the pipe out, it be came clear that the problem was the soldered elbow at the top of the vertical shower pipe which somehow had become unsoldered

so I knocked out 2 tiles, resoldered and it doesn’t leak anymore. so that’s good.

but now I have a large gash in the wall on the bedroom side. Should I fill it with mortar/stucco? Should I try and wedge some bits of brick in? Spray foam? Just plaster all the way in and then level?

 

Is that daylight showing?

Could use a picture from the outside.

I don't think stuffing that hole is going to be the final solution!

 

That's in the bedroom looking into the bathroom.
The other side of the wall in the picture would be the tiled wall in the bathroom.

It didn't come unsoldered. More likely it corroded or rotted.
That plumbing doesn't look in the best shape.

I wouldn't fill the wall with anything. Possibly add some blocking and cover with sheetrock or similar and then finish that. If the wall was permanently filled it would make future repairs much harder.

 

Yes that’s the bathroom on the other side.

when i removed the 90 degree fitting it just twisted off with a little bit of force.

I’m not an expert but copper pipe did not appear to be corroded. No pitting or green corrosion under the tape it was wrapped in, just sort of a dull penny color.

the pipe in the foreground is of the picture is emt conduit and is pretty rough because it’s been soaking it water from the leaking fitting for a year.

 

Blocking out and putting up drywall is not really an option because there is a door and built in cabinets in that wall and managing that would be too complicated.

if I have to chisel it out for another repair, I’ll chisel it out, but hopefully that repair will hold.

1) can I use expandable foam to fill the void? I’ll need to be able to stick tiles to it on one side and apply a scratch coat on the other.

2) I’m assuming the reason the copper was wrapped in tape is to prevent corrosion. I’m guessing I should re wrap what I peeled back. Is it a special kind of tape? It looks a bit like electrical tape but it has a texture to it unlike electrical tape.

 

"I’ll need to be able to stick tiles to it on one side and apply a scratch coat on the other."

That's exactly why you need to build support and hang drywall and cbu.

 

I think like a plasterer. You have two things to do.
The first is to repair the plaster side.
Scrape off all the plaster that is loose from the brick. If it got wet and it probably did it might be loose.
Install some kind of support. This can be some 1 X 2s or something stuck in the holes in the tile from left to right.. To this you will screw, if you can do it without splitting your supports, or wire tie metal lath to it. This is probably gypsum plaster so plaster it with gypsum plaster. First paint the edges and the surrounding with bonding agent. Screed the plaster off flush with the exposed brown coat of plaster. To finish what you have you should use joint compound. I think a setting type joint compound. I tell you this way because finish plaster might be hard to get and it is not amateur friendly. Finish flush with your surrounding finish. Also maybe there is more finish that is loose from the brown coat. Scrape that off first.
Second for the shower side you should use Portland cement plaster. Just keep stuffing it into the hole until is is full then screed it off flush with the existing cement plaster basecoat. Maybe some bricks will take up some of the volume of the void. I think when you get done plastering the other side there will not be much void.
Leave room for the tile. You can make up a little thickness to get the tile flush so make sure you don't over fill it and coming a little shy is OK.
In summary you don't have to cover this over with something different, just install some support and lath and plaster.
Use your own ingenuity to figure out how to get support. just something to hold lath.
Were I there I might decide to do it differently. Like install some masonry infill then plaster. You can decide if this is easier. Use the holes in the bricks to your advantage. If you go this route use cement mortar and still leave room to plaster over it with gypsum plaster.

 

What is that string looking thing running down from the pipe over the surface of the plaster?

 

That is the leaking water running down the wall.

That would be a miracle. I have never ever seen a non soldered copper fitting not leak.

 

“What is that string looking thing running down from the pipe over the surface of the plaster?”

that’s solder paste. I made a bit of a mess fixing it, but I cleaned it up.

 

Tight coat, thanks for the recommendations I think I’m going to a cement mortar to try and stuff the voids and level it off and then I’ll use a ceramic adhesive for the tile and then once the mortar is dry patch the PoP on the bedroom side.

For filling the void do you think a normal 3:2:1 mortar will work?

 

For the sake of convenience I think you should buy a bag of mortar mix, unless you have some sand. Portland and Lime or sand and masonry cement on hand . Or unless you have some other project to use up a bag of Portland. A bag of Portland weighs 94#. I seems like I saw some 47# bags at Home Depot. They cost about twice per pound what the big bags cost. The older I get the more willing I am to spend more for less.

 

I have lime, Portland cement and sand on hand leftover from other projects. Probably enough for this patch. Is 3 parts sand 2 lime 1 cement a good ratio?