Is this brickwork troublesome?

[Michael55]

House I've just started the process of buying. I noticed part of a brick is missing along the baseline which frightens me (which the surveyor didn't catch at a level 3) and there's spalling in the brickwork in several places around the side of the property - what would likely have caused this spalling, and should I be really concerned about the missing part of the brick (to the left of the air vent)? It seems there's zero pointing visible along the bottom visible row..

 

[Cubist]

Theres no evidence of spalling of any of the bricks shown in the photos you provide above. Masonry spalling is typically caused by the Freeze and Thaw cycle which causes water trapped in the face of a brick to freeze when the temperature drops, as it freezes the water expands as it turns to ice to then 'blow' off the exposed face of the brick. Significant evidence of spalling can indicate that there are problems associated with drainage of rainwater from the affected walls. In some cases damp rising from the ground below can also become trapped in the exposed faces of bricks to then fall victim to the Freeze and Thaw challenge - and, if the DPC has been compromised, such rising damp may reach well above the typical heights of just a few courses of masonry.

For some reason someone has decided to remove a half brick to produce the hole you are seeing. Theres no good reason for this that I can think of so I'm assuming that either the brick was already damaged and weak or that the obvious work done to root out the mortar prior to re-pointing the masonry caused that small piece of brick to break and was then thrown away. Its very easily put right - you will just need a piece of the same red-brick cut to size and mortared into place.

The other damage shown in the photos I suspect was also done when the mortar was rooted out prior to re-pointing. Often-times these days a cutting blade fitted to an angle grinder is used to cut the old mortar out. On occasion the operator can easily lose sight of where the blade actually is only to find later that he/she has cut into the face of a brick - 'blade wander'. It's also not unknown for the blade to become trapped in the mortar bed to induce a heavy 'kick' from the machine. That kick, or later efforts to remove the damaged blade, can result in chunks of the brick being removed. There is what appears to be evidence of 'blade wander' in the fourth row of masonry below the damaged bricks in your first photo. The only possible repair for this damage is to fill the cavity with a material to match the colour of the bricks.

The mortar used to re-point the wall is another matter. This appears to be one of the modern injection installed resinous mortars and it may be worth your asking if the current owner knows the brand and type used. It may not be a big issue but that material may not be 'breathable' and it could prevent or limit surface rain-water escape but I would be more concerned that the people that did the work have perhaps 'bridged' the DPC.

 

[fernicarry]

The first picture almost looks like someone has drilled from the inside and blown the face off the bricks.