removing mortar from old bricks

by **confuse2** » Mon Aug 13, 2007 11:25 am

We have a lot of beautiful, red, Kent bricks reclaimed from an old wall of the house.
Can someone please tell me if there is any machine that can be hired to remove the mortar, rather than chisel them off manually?

Thanking in advance.

by **TheCougar** » Wed Aug 15, 2007 6:39 pm

I would try sand blasting them and seeing if you get a positive result. you might want to try a couple of different sand blasting ways. Also you could try muratic acid. Just test these ways on one brick to make sure they won't be harming them.

by **confuse2** » Thu Aug 16, 2007 8:08 am

Will try them, thanks.

by **jeff beeba** » Tue Sep 11, 2007 3:34 am

HEY!!! I hope I'm not too late to reply to your need to remove mortar from hopefully salvageable bricks. I needed to save some really old pool tiles for a restoration job I worked on. It was recommended to me that I mix a 1 part muriatic acid solution w/ 4 parts water into 5 gal. pales and let 'em soak for several days (3-5) then simply scrape off the "mushy mortar using rubber gloves & a putty knife then rinse with fresh water & allow to dry. Try this method I think you'll be amazed...I was! Good luck & I agree with that fella that suggested you try one first to be sure the acid won't kill the brick as well. You can also adjust the mix as needed...I went 3:1 because of the "more power" issue.

by **confuse2** » Tue Sep 11, 2007 8:31 am

Where can I find muriatic acid, please? And thanks for your helpful suggestion.

by **Jenks_C** » Mon Mar 03, 2008 10:55 pm

Providing the mortar used was the sandy lime mortar you should find it faily easy to chip of with a bolster chisel. I cleaned hundreds of old soft reds several years ago like that and it only took a minute or so per brick.

Using the acid method would need a very large receptacle and gallons of acid which you will then need to et rid of when you ave finished. You can't put it down the drain :shock:

by **toptips** » Wed Mar 05, 2008 12:11 am

agree with jenks-c,try using a brickies hammer this has a chisel type end instead of a claw.by the time the bricks have soaked and been washed again you could have cleaned quite a few.

by **thedoctor** » Wed Mar 05, 2008 7:12 am

Follow the links to a good brick hammer and "scutch". Wear googles though.

http://www.awin1.com/pclick.php?p=14403 ... 071&m=1228

http://www.awin1.com/pclick.php?p=14403 ... 071&m=1228