3
That week on the Johnson job site nearly broke me
Last Tuesday was supposed to be a simple garden wall repair out on Maple Street, but the homeowner had used some weird old brick from the 70s that crumbled if you looked at it wrong. I spent three full days matching mortar color and salvaging just 40 good bricks out of a pile of 200. Has anyone else dealt with those soft, pitted bricks from that era and found a faster way to deal with them?
3 comments
Log in to join the discussion
Log In3 Comments
parker_jones5010d ago
Man that brings back memories. A buddy of mine had me help with a similar job a few years back and we ran into those same crumbly old bricks. What ended up saving us was using a diamond blade on the grinder to cut off the worst parts instead of trying to chisel them clean. We also mixed a little bonding agent into our mortar which helped the new joints hold better against the soft brick faces. Still took forever but cutting time in half felt like a win.
7
thomas.cameron9d ago
Did the bonding agent change how the mortar dried color wise compared to the rest of the wall?
1
elliotjenkins10d ago
@Parker_jones50 I actually found chiseling saved more brick than a diamond blade on those soft ones.
6