I don't have a whole lot of experience with this kinda thing, but I have a brick wall lining my driveway that I want to tear down and preserve the bricks in order to build a fire pit instead. I was thinking the way to go on that would probably be to chisel out the mortar... are there any easier ways that I haven't thought of?
Posted Jun 6, 2012, 6:42 PM UTC
You need a teenager. Save your back.
Depends on what you have for tools, you can use a wire wheel on a angle grinder if the mortar is soft but it creates hella dust, or pneumatic chisel but that takes a fairly stout air compressor.
3 inch chisel, 3 lb hammer. That's what I would try first.
IMHO the cost of new bricks (for the quantity you would use for a fire pit) makes the work needed to conserve the existing ones not worth it.
Basically : get the thing on the ground, even if it means damaging some bricks. Large hammer, large chisel, pry bar.
Drag large sections, lift one end, and drop them over something like a 4x4 to break them along mortar lines. Large sections of wall do not like torque.
Once you have them into sections that you can lift, drop them off something like a truckbed onto the same 4x4.
chisel the mortar away and try not to hit the bricks with the hammer.