Re-using bricks

[John Rumm]

Any good tips for separating reclaimed bricks from their attached mortar?

The high winds earlier in the year pushed over a tall "hedge" of climbing evergreens on a free standing trellis at the edge of our patio. Alas in falling over, it also pushed over one of the retaining walls at the edge of of the patio.

Now its warm enough to get out there and clear up the mess, I thought I may as well reclaim what bricks I could to rebuild the wall.

[tabbypurr]

For soft old fashioned ones I found an angle grinder used very gently very close to the brick got most off with little damage, then either acid for what remains or use as is. I do mean /very/ gently - pretend you're a fairy! Diamond disc of course, and disc rotation pushing toward the centre of the brick not away from it.

NT

[Bev]

A bolster chisel and lump hammer worked well for me around 30 years ago ...and around 2 years ago.

[Chris Hogg]

+1

With a little bit of luck, the mortar separates from the brick as a thin slab, leaving an almost clean surface.

[AJH]

Yes especially if it's old lime mortar, follow up with a scutch comb in a sds before resorting to brick acid

[Tim Lamb]

I find a brick layers trowel quickest. If the mortar is too hard, I've got other things to do with my time.

[spuorgelgoog]

An apprentice.

Failing that, a teenager on piece rate.

Owain

[AJH]

I only did it at scale for the old handmade bricks demolishing farm buildings and that invariably meant lime mortar and easy cleaning with a scutch comb in the other side of the hammer head. portland cement mortar becomes a problem when the bond is stronger than the brick and not worth the effort most of the time.

[John Rumm]

These are probably no more than 30 year old Tecra Smeed Dean London stocks[1], so moderately hard with cement mortar.

I was able to get some to separate with the SDS Max when I was taking the slab of wall apart. But the big AG and a diamond disk followed by a scutch sounds like it might do the trick.

Same brick:

[1] File:MasonryRaisedBed.jpg

which ironically I matched and got some of 8 years ago to build the raised bed as a buttress on the end walls of the patio, which were looking a bit doubtful at the time. It was one of the side walls that looked fairly solid that went! (although now being able to see how it was constructed it was a bit of a bodge, with only a single skin up to patio floor level, and then the second skin added inside the first, and sat on the patio)

(the new have weathered to match the old now)

[tabbypurr]

The angle grinder method I mentioned was specifically for weak (hand made) bricks with strong mortar. It's relatively easy if you have stronger bricks than the mortar, just whack it.

NT

[Andrew]

sit the bricks on a bed of firm sand and use an SDS drill in chisel mode with a chisel blade (if you have one), held at quite a sharp angle to the brick.

the vibration is very good at breaking the bond without imposing sudden heavy impacts on the brick.

I cleaned sand/cement plaster off a whole load of 3 inch light- weight blocks like this and re-used them.

[Muddymike]

I successfully repaired a low wall knocked over by a car by just removing the mortar from the broken joint with an angry grinder. With a bit of help (due to the weight) repositioning a section comprising some

20+ bricks and capping it worked perfectly.

Mike

[Roger Hayter]

One of the most beautiful typos I've seen.

[Ophelia]

One of the most beautiful typos I've seen.

Roger Hayter

===

Indeed lol

[John Rumm]

Yeah I did think of that since it fell apart in (mostly) two solid sections. However both were about 2m long and 6 or 7 courses high, so a bit too big and heavy. Also I want to put them back slightly different, and dog tooth the corner in for a stronger final result.