Walls – Old brick foundation walls, 125 years, need repointing and/or plaster finish. What is best method and materials to resurface these old bricks

I don't own a house with plaster so please take this advice with a grain of salt...

As you pointed out, the cracks usually appear due to settling. As a result, you ideally want your repair technique to be resilient against future movement. As far as I know, there are 2 main ways of doing this:

Method #1: For smaller cracks, fill them in with painter's caulk (latex caulk). Because it's a latex compound, it will (supposedly) expand and contract with the crack. It also makes cleanup a breeze.

Method #2: Use a joint compound specifically made for plaster work, tape over the crack, and apply additional swipes with larger blades to smooth the look. The technique is described here: http://www.askthebuilder.com/B38_Plaster_Repair_-_Cracks.shtml (the author suggests drywall compound but as Niall pointed out, it's better to use other compounds).

-M

Feedback: sounds like a good idea. But I suggest you use as big fasteners as possible, as your moment on them will be quite high...the load being so far from the anchors themselves. Something at least 3/8" or even 1/2".

The entire weight of the set is around 112lb and your TV will stand at least 6in from the brick surface; this will create a torque of ~56 lbf, higher the more you extend the arm away from the wall.

I suggest you consider fastening the TV-mount THROUGH the wood, into the brick itself, and consider the wood just a "spacer", as 2" of wood only may be to little to hold the assembly. I would personally install a long internally-threaded sleeve (such as this), and fasten it with a chemical anchor such as Hilti HY-270, Simpson Strong-Tie AT-XP, DeWalt AC100+ or other similar non-epoxy resins suitable for masonry. You can then drill and drive threaded rods through the lumber, and fasten the mount with nuts. If you cut the threaded rod to the correct length, you can use black dome nuts, that would look as good as a regular bolt.