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DIY | DIY
brickwork | Replacing a damaged brick
To replace a brick or several bricks
in a wall is well within the realms of the DIY enthusiast, the biggest
problem is matching up the bricks, in some cases it is far easier
to cut a brick out in one piece and turn it around so that the damaged
brick face is facing inwards, this is often much easier than finding
a brick that matches your existing brickwork.
Many DIY manuals and old DIY'ers would recommend removing the old
brick with a chisel and club hammer but personally I don't like this
method as the brick can be damaged further and also the surrounding
area. It makes far more sense to remove the brick by either cutting
it out with a grinder and diamond disk or drilling out most of the
mortar with a power drill, this means that there is very little vibration
as opposed to knocking the hell out of it with a hammer and chisel!
Here we are going to remove the damaged brick by drilling away the
majority of the mortar.
Using a Masonry bit and a drill with hammer action, drill as many
holes as possible through the mortar surrounding the brick to be removed,
ensure the drill is long enough to reach the other side.
The brick should be loose by now, if not a few gentle taps with a
bolster chisel and heavy hammer will remove any remaining mortar.
Remove the brick.
Using the Bolster chisel and hammer, gently remove and remaining mortar.
Clean the hole where the brick has been removed from ensuring there
is no debris. Wet the surrounding area with some water, this will
prevent the other bricks in the wall from sucking all of the moisture
from the mortar.
Apply a bed of mortar to the bottom and sides of the hole using a
suitable trowel.
Apply some mortar to the top and sides of the brick and carefully
push the brick into the hole, ensure the brick is level and square
with all the others. If not you can level it be pressing more mortar
into the joints with a trowel. Point the brick and leave to set.
The finished brickwork.
Courtesy of Ultimatehandyman.co.uk
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