Hello all!  I am looking for resources on repairing/restoring historic brickwork- not just repointing, fixing the actual bricks.  Here's the story:  There is a 90 year old chimney in my area that is made of a relatively soft brick, and it is eroding badly.  Some of the bricks are completely missing, others are so badly pitted as to look like swiss cheese.  We live in a very humid area with lots of pollution, and the chimney had been unmaintained for over 20 years, so this is unsurprising to me.  A group of concerned citizens has asked me to make a general recommendation about what to do with the structure.  My initial (gut) feeling is that the amount of original material loss (~15%) is so significant as to be impractical to repair (the chimney is about 70 feet tall and about 20' in diameter and sits less than 15 feet from two homes, so it will be very difficult to access for major work).  There are also significant concerns that the chimney is a safety hazard (it occasionally "drops" material from a great height on the homes below).  I would like to be able to present them with options, but am having trouble finding good references on this kind of problem.  Any resources or case studies that you can recommend would be much appreciated.  Thank you!

-Cass

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