I’m planning an addition to a house with a brick veneer (i.e. single brick) exterior. I’d like to salvage enough brick from the ~ 30 ft wall adjoining the new addition to re-brick the new 12′ front wall of the addition. I realize that I’m nuts and it will be hard work, but it also seems like the only way I’ll be able to match the brick on my ~70 yr old house- the brickworks which supplied this brick is long gone.
I’m wondering if anyone has ideas or experience with the best method to remove the mortar from the bricks I hope to salvage. I do have some brick which I kept from a new door opening I cut into the house a few years ago, so I can experiment a bit.
The brick is red and has a hard exterior/soft interior, so I assume it’s fired clay-based stuff rather than cementitious material. The mortar looks to me like sand and Portland cement, and despite a few places which would benefit from re-pointing, it seems to be in pretty good shape- it won’t fall apart on its own, and it seems pretty resistant to the obvious brute force and ignorance hammer-and-chisel method.
Has anybody out there experimented with using muriatic acid to soften the mortar prior to chiseling? Or will something else work?
I’d appreciate your suggestions- even if they’re suggestions about what type of chisel works best for the job (i.e. easiest mortar removal with fewest bricks split). I’d image by the time someone preps a thousand bricks for re-use, they figure out a method which works well for them- and I’d like to benefit from your experience!
Replies
If it's hard portland mortar on soft brick, you are in for a tough time.
Bricks with a depression on the bottom are tougher to extract and clean than flat bricks. When a brick has holes in the core, you have the advantage of being able to put a chisel through the holes to knock the mortar off. Most older bricks do not have holes through the core, however.
Soaking them in water first does seem to help, particularly with soft mortar.
Chipping hammer is one tool to use, though a selection of tools is useful.
Any time you can get a tool under the mortar and 'pry' it away, the bricks will be less prone to breakage than with 'percussive' action.
Have not tried the acid.
Ahh... One of my first "real" jobs, when I was 10 or 12 or so. Nickel a brick, paid only for those not broken. Made about $100.
What worked best for me was a Wonderbar. Hold a brick vertically in one hand, and swing the short L end so it hits right at the mortar/brick line. Practice, after a dozen or so you'll get the rythym down. 3/4 of the time, all mortar would come off in one swing. Rest of the time, the mortar was more tenacious, would have to work for that nickel. I experienced ~5% breakage. Was able to do a wheelbarrow load in 30-40 minutes. I have no idea what type of mortar/brick I was dealing with. Came from an old smokestack at a steam heating plant; I'd guess it was built about 1910 +/- 20 years. I did my thing in mid 80's.
If everything seems to be going well, you've obviously overlooked something.
Yep, wonderbar is the way to go (5¢ per brick labor even better). You want three wheelbarrows/wagons/carts, whatever. First barrow has the salvaged brick. Grab a brick, give it a practiced rap. If if comes clean, it goes in the clean barrow. If not, or if it breaks, it goes in the second chance pile (you will need halves & fractional pieces anyway). Sounds like more work, but it allows for a rythym to clean the single bricks. Later, with more tools, you can set on the remaining brick--where/when you can spend time with a mason's chisel, 3-4 different kinds of hammers, etc.
Actually the first most importatnt step is in the demo. Yo want a flat pointed bar or mason's chisel during demo. You want to try and "shear" the mortar from the brick, to take advantage of the lesser strenght in tension, rather than trying to "beat" the strength in compression.
Cap'n--
Back in my other life when I was a mason I cleaned thousands upon thousands of used brick for use again in my business. Old used brick were in big demamd and I took all I could get. Any time an old building was knocked down ,I was there to salvage what brick I could get. The only tool I ever used to clean brick, was my trowel. A whack or two with the edge of my trowel was usually all it took to knock the old mortar off. I'm talking about the old clay brick, not the shale fired brick. Those old clay brick were hand made in a form. Sand was sprinkled in a wooden form before the clay was packed in, so that when turned upside down the "green' brick would fall out. Consequently the sand stuck to the wet clay when they were fired and that prevented the mortar from adhereing to the brick. So those "old " brick cleaned pretty easy. Actually, I never figured out if the mortar was holding the bricks together or was used to keep the bricks apart. Incidently, that depression in the bottom of the old solid brick is called "the frog" and was always laid with the frog down.Be not afraid of going slowly. Be afraid only of standing still. chinese proverb
If you know what the "frog" is, you probably also have run into the "hog".
Greencu--
I sure do know what a "hog" is and I can truthfully say that I never created one. You gotta count your courses 'man. When somebody would ask "how many rows you got to sill high or maybe to the window head I would tell them "corn grows in rows, cakes are baked in layers, brick are layed in courses.Be not afraid of going slowly. Be afraid only of standing still. chinese proverb
My short masonry career was ended by a "hog".
A friend of mine does building salvage. When his guys clean brick, he provides them with hatchets and a bench grinder to sharpen them with. This is cleaning solid brick with lime mortar, though.
First construction job I had was cleaning bricks recycled from a high school. An old dull hachet was the tool. Man, if it was sharp, those would've been some messy bricks<G>
In '65 the going rate was one penny a brick, 3 bucks an hour was my tops, and after that hour, I was toasted! EliphIno!
I got a nickle in texas in '71. used a rigging axe.
Excellence is its own reward!
They didn't really sharpen the hatchets, just kind of trued 'em back up.
I rebuilt a chimney stack or two here in Cali, where the ground decides to move every now and again...........I use a brick hammer (I know it sounds like a novel idea) seein' how I have 3-4 in my mason's bag..........also done a fair amount of masonry restoration as well...............hennywaze.......... a sharp strike with the cutting edge of the hammer where the mortar meets the brick usually does the trick. might take a few practice runs , and after 1-or 2 blows to your fingers...you'll get the hang of it.............often times we find the closest matching brick and mix them in with whats been salvaged.....smoke & mirrors....................follow me
LoL.
Knocking down chimneys is where I learned how to clean brick.
Never had enough used brick to finish a job, so mixing in new has been the only way to finish.
Was on a job once, where the HO complained that the used brick (trucked in from Chicago, no less) was unacceptable, as it was not "used" enough. We had to dab mortar & lampblack on the wall. Then the wall was "too even." Hard way to learn how to repoint--pick a brick, chip it out & reset it either 1/4" out or a 1/4" in.
5 years later, the wall was covered in ivy. Go figure.
Thanks so much, guys! Lots of options to try, and no tools to buy- what's not to like? Sounds like there'll be a lot of whacking and cursing going on at my place in a year or two, and a couple of very dull wonderbars and hatchets too (and an already dull brick hammer)...
Any of you guys who did this for $3 an hour or 5 cents a brick want to come up to Toronto and give me a hand?! I'll even make it American dollars!
LoL
want to come up to Toronto
Dunno if I'm allows back in T-town <g>
The labor rate you could probably afford, but not the beer bill . . . <g>
Missed the timing, too. A month or two ago, with the heat index over 110°, Toronto would have been a nice diversion (so would chipping bricks). But now, it's just coming into the best time of year in these parts.
Oh well, c'est la vie.
Molten, I used a $15 Campbell Hausfeld air chisel, worked great. The brick came off with little or no damage and cleaning them was very easy especially getting the mortar out of the holes. The air chisel is nice and light too. -Ed
I'd start with the Bosch rotary hammer, at least for the initial demo. This is the kind of thing where you have to try a few tools and techniques to see what works best.
-- J.S.
Are these techniques still good for what someone else mentioned? Good old brick that a PO had tuckpointed (DIY'er) using the worst mortar I've ever seen. No lime in it at all, I imagine. And the brick isn't made anymore so....what a mess.
I'll take it from the overwhelming silence that the answer is "no, don't try these techniques on non-line mortar brick" :)
May just be it's Sunday. Low, or no, lime mortar is a bit less strong, in my experience--but that also has been with very old martar, too.
Since you have soft-insides brick, I'd take a bit more time in the demolition. Hmm, rather than wearing out a perfectly good wonderbar, you might want to wander by the local Sam's or Walmart, and pick up an inexpensive set of prybars. Oh, and a cheap, sturdy tarp or two will come in handy, as well.
Good luck & fair weather.