I am planning a kitchen / family room addition which will require removal of some exterior brick veneer, about 160 sq. ft. Any recommendations of techniques to use. I anticipate using brick chisel and taking it down brick by brick. I don’t think I want to start bashing the wall with a sledge hammer. I will be starting at the 2nd floor level, so would building a scaffold be time well spent ? Thanks.
Robert
Replies
Scaffolding is probably a good idea from second floor height. Are you saving the brick? You will want to choose a place to put the brick after it's reomved. A plywood chute is worth building, too.
Mason's chisel and a hammer is a good way to get started. Pick a brick, and cut into the mortar around it. Start shallow, and work around, getting deeper. At some point it will get loose. You can go faster with power tools, but you are also going to have to hold them up while you use them (and up an down the scaffold every day). The balance of speed versus effort is one you'll have to balance (NPI). Definitely work by hand at the limits of the definition. And save the/any "halfs" as you'll want them at the termination to make a neat, square edge--unless you're going to weave new brick into the old.
This is what, around 8 x 20, it'll go pretty quick. A helper will speed things up, especially if you need to save/salvage the brick (you knock them out, the helper cleans the mortar off).
If you have a small air chisel and the compressor to supply the gross amount of air it will require you can really get some production in your demolition. The air chisel is much less tiring than the old bang it out by hand method we've used for years.
Thanks for the replies, I had not considered an air chisel, I do have a 3 HP. compressor so I will try that approach. I removed some brick on my last house but that brick/mortar was in poor condition, and came off easily ( 70 yr. old ). This house was built in 1968 and the brick is sound.
Robert
My Bosch Bulldog hammer drill would do a good job, and it's a tool that will last a long time and you'll find more uses for it than you think. It comes with a 3/4" chisel that would work well for the mortar. I think it's a little weak ffor chipping concrete, but it does well on mortar and grout.
Whenever you are asked if you can do a job, tell'em "Certainly, I can!" Then get busy and find out how to do it. T. Roosevelt
Ed, I have borrowed a hammer drill more times than I can remember, this sounds like a good excuse for a new tool.
Robert
I think the tool that you want is actually a rotary hammer combo tool. It's different than a hammer drill. Matt
Matt is right, and I used the wrong term. The Bosch Bulldog is a combo drill-hammer drill-hammer which is very different from a plain hammer drill. One big difference is that a plain hammer drill has a standard Jacobs chuck which will accept any bit. The Bosch has a SDS-Plus chuck which takes special bits. Another big difference is that the Bosch actually drills into the concrete, whereas the Black & Decker struggles, and you will break the carbide tips off several of the cheap bits before the job is over.
Whenever you are asked if you can do a job, tell'em "Certainly, I can!" Then get busy and find out how to do it. T. Roosevelt
The best tool I've found to clean the mortar from the brick without breaking too many is a hatchet.
IanDG