I am working on an old house that has several broken bricks on it ; these bricks need replacing . I would like to know how to replace them.What is the best way to replace old bricks on a brick house the are broken?you can take a dremel tool and cut out the mortar of the broken brick, then pry it out. then you can lay some new mortar on the bottom and sides, install a new brick, and mortar the top, finishing with whatever mortar finish was already there What is the best way to replace old bricks on a brick house the are broken?Hopefully, you have access to some matching bricks.
Look around the home, for brick walkways (yard may have grown over them), planters, decorative items, fence posts, mailbox post/enclosure etc... things that may have been made with extra bricks when the home was built. You may get lucky and find some stashed away in storage, in a crawlspace, or attic. By using bricks that came with the original load, to replace broken bricks, repairs will be less obvious.
Now... before you start replacing bricks, you need to find out WHY you have broken bricks. For example, if some of the bricks broke, in a pattern, and there is a crack in the mortar (especially a staggered crack that runs up at a diagonal), you may have a case where the foundation, or a part of it, has settled. In which case, you should repair that, before repairing the brickwork. If you have a vertical crack near the corner of a wall, it may mean that the bricks (along the side) have pulled loose from the wall, and the home could be at risk of losing a whole section of bricks from the wall, if not attended to.
Ok, assuming everything that could have caused the brick to break in the first place has been repaired, the basic repair is pretty straightforward... you have to dig out the old brick(s), and mortar, and replace it. Dremel tools with a grinder attachment work pretty good at cutting away the mortar, but you may find an air impact chisel and bit are faster. Remove the mortar from around the broken bricks, and they'll pull right out.
Clean up the opening as well as you can. Apply new mortar to the bottom of the opening, and the sides, and press the replacement brick in place. You may find a hammer, or mallet, helpful in helping to tap it down into place. (I've used a chisel, or screwdriver...by laying them across the top of the brick, and while holding the handle, tap down gently on the metal. If you lift the handle just a bit, you can actually tap down on the back side of the brick, even though your hammer won't actually reach in there, hehehe. You're using the longer handled tool to apply the force where you want it.) By the way, I like to add just a bit of mortar to the top of the brick, along the back half, just before I work it in place. Then I don't have to squeeze so much in later.
Don't forget to finish off the mortar like the original work. If its been tooled, you'll need to do it the same. Oh, before you start, make some test mortar to double check the color, and make any changes necessary. (You'll want to clean the old mortar as much as possible first, before comparing colors)
This is more time consuming than anything else. It's not really 'difficult' to do, if you have the patience, heheh.
If you'd like to contract the work out though, then look for someone who can do 'tuckpointing'. %26quot;Repairing%26quot; brickwork actually takes more labor than installing new brick, so not all bricklayers would be interested in bidding on the work, but they can tell you who does good work.
Have FunWhat is the best way to replace old bricks on a brick house the are broken?the best way to remove brick without breaking other brick is to rent a 14 in. in. quickie saw...this will cut deep enough to remove a brick without damaging others...cut the top and bottom bed joints and then chisel out the middle of the brick...now you can chisel the head joints to remove the ends of the brick...What is the best way to replace old bricks on a brick house the are broken?Use drill cut large hole centre of old brick. use drill around edges of old brick before chipping brick out. Do not do the drilling in reverse order.
