How do I carefully take down a wall to be able to reuse the bricks?
Question:Also - I have some reclamed bricks with mortar still stuck to them. How do I clean them?
Answers:
With a hammer and chissel.The first line you take out will crumble.When that is out ,you put the chissel under the next brik hammer it in slowly untill the brik popup,then the next etc Your first line you take out must be more or less chest high.If it is not a housewall,but a boundarywall,you start at the top
that's imposible, buy new bricks
From the top and work down, take care! lol.
First of all you will ruin some of the bricks removing the wall but you should expect that.
I use a hammer with a "chisel" end to remove the bricks and to remove the mortar. You can use a grinder too in the tough areas but basically masonry work is labor intensive.
You chisel the mortar off each brick to get the brick down one by one, but do expect to lose some of the brick. Unless the brick is unusally valuable, this is so labor intensive that it's not worth saving of the brick. Then once the brick is isolated, you have to chisel the remaining mortar or you can use a wet saw to get the remaining mortar off. It's gonna be a lot of work for little comparative restoration value of the brick.
You can use a cold chisel sold at your local hardware store,or borrow one.Carefully tap between the grout lines being careful not to hit the bricks themselves. You can then use the chisel to remove the excess mortar.Been there done that! Good Luck!
You are talking about a lot of pain staking work. Use a hammer and chisle to remove the mortar from the brick. There is still no promise that the brick will not break when you try to seperate it. You can clean the brick with acid. Ask your home improvement store.
Someone gave me a dump truck load of bricks already seperated. With a chipping hammer, I worked on them for weeks after I got off work. They were still only suitable for a patio and walkway. It would more fun to seperate fly droppings from black pepper.
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