How best to repair this wall?

[Blazin]

We have been noting water and some mold in our basement/garage.   With a little exploration and knocking down a previous owner's bad repair job this is what we found.   We are do-it-yourself people, and wondering how best to proceed.  Any advice?   

The second outside layer of wall has two bricks that are completely loose and can be removed easily.

[Deano]

Is the brick below the window above or below grade? If you have a brick foundation, that can be a tougher fix, but doable, but if it's a brick wall, it should just involve some mortar. If your brick is quite old you may need lime mortar, if you use modern stuff you'll kill the old brick in no time.

[Jack]

Before you try to repair it, you need to understand what caused it to fail in the first place. I'm guessing that it's a window well (the bottom of the window is below the surrounding grade, and maybe there's a retaining wall outside)? If so, the failure is probably due to water pooling in the well and not only soaking into the brick but also applying pressure to the wall.

Before fixing the brick, you need to:

• Check that the wall isn't leaning over or bowing out and in danger of collapse (get a long level, place it against the wall horizontally and then vertically, and check that all points of the level are touching the wall and that the top is directly over the bottom)
• Fix/improve the drainage (describing how to do that is too complicated to fit in this list item)

If the wall is leaning or bowing out, call a licensed structural engineer.

[Blazin]

Thanks for the advice! I will make sure I use lime mortar if I decide to repair it myself.

The house is >110yr old, so the damage has most likely been going on for years. The bottom of the window well is right at grade, so I'm guessing that part of this did erode and water just slowly entered the house. I've found some other areas around the house and repitched the grade and sealed in cracks between sidewalks and the house... just never noticed this one.

Are there any tricks towards foundation repair that I should know?

Oh yeah, forgot to mention the wall doesn't appear to be leaning.

[sleepyguy]

I would put a metal rebar bit past the window then redo the brinks.  That's should keep things strong and clean.