Replies

1. 
   Guest_ | Aug 21, 1999 06:17am | #1

   *
   Hi Heather,

   5 tons of elbow grease and you start at the top, brick by brick, row by row. Stack the bricks nice and neat at the end of the driveway, and put a for sale sign on them.

   Rent an electric chipper, makes short work of a wall. Aim the chisel into the mortar joints and away you go.

   Get safety glasses, hearing protection, safety boots, Here's the important part, PUT THEM ALL ON.

   Have fun an play safe,

   Gabe

1. 
   Guest_ | Aug 25, 1999 05:01am | #2

   *Heather:Gabe's methods sound good to me. It'll probably take several trips with a dump truck to get rid of the debris.Not sure how your house is constructed; you say "changing the siding from brick to shingle." Does that mean a nominal 4" brick veneer? If you remove the brick veneer you may have to redo your soffit also. In addition, unless the veneer is supported by steel, it would seem that you would end up with an empty brick ledge at the foundation just begging for water penetration. Why would you want to do this - unbrick a house? Is the brick in that bad of shape? Odd style brick that looks dated?

1. 
   Guest_ | Aug 26, 1999 06:51am | #3

   *Coincidentally, we removed brick veneer from our house and put up shingles too.In our case, this was just a one-story house, and the brick only went up to the level of the window sills, so at least we didn't have to work from ladders or scaffold. Above that was ugly aluminum siding that came off quite easily. Breaking up the brick was pretty easy. I found that I could just bash an area with a 10-lb sledge and that would break it or at least loosen an area that I then tackled with a mason's hammer and wide mason's chisel. Yes, wear eye protection! Loading the wreckage into the wheelbarrow and hauling it all away was just about as much work as the demolition itself.As for the brick ledge on the foundation, I just covered it with concrete, with a roughly 45-degree prism shape so that any rain that washed down the wall would be deflected overboard.The sheathing was something like homosote (spelling?) or beaverboard as we called it in the part of Canada where I grew up. Some sort of fibrous stuff impregnated with asphalt. We covered that with a new skin of 1/2 inch cdx plywood to give us something for the nails to grip, then the felt paper, then the shingles. We were looking for the Cape Cod look, so I made wide corner boards and wide window trim from cedar 2x6's trimmed to about 2x5 and painted white. After the shingles weather for another year or two we will have them stained gray to complete the effect.One nice thing about doing shingles; it's really low tech. All you need is a utility knife, coping saw and a hammer. It's kinda slow going, but you don't need any helpers, and I love the smell of fresh-cut cedar. You didn't ask, but I would be glad to offer a few pointers on shingling.Jay

1. 
   Guest_ | Aug 26, 1999 07:38am | #5

   *Jay:Your project sounds quite attractive. I never did understand that 1/2 height masonry wall design.Just as an FYI, the "roughly 45-degree prism shape" concrete strip that you referred to, I believe, would be called a cant strip.

2. 
   Heather_Cook | Aug 26, 1999 07:38am | #4

   *
   We're adding on to our house and changing the siding from brick to shingle. Does anyone have any ideas on how to remove the brick (easily and efficiently would be a bonus)? Please let me know!! Thanks!