Small brick repair

[Wakey]

I had a whole house generator installed about a month ago. Mostly they did a nice job but they did such an awful job on the brick that they pretty much earned the right to never be allowed on the property again.

I wanted the transfer switch flushed as much as possible since the meter that is next to it is.

So I bought a couple masonry blades for my circular saw, figured I'd do them a solid and have it ready for them.

I had to make some phone calls and when I went back out the monkey had done an awful job patching up the brick. For starters he used concrete, until that ran out and then finished with premixed mortar that was colored.

Had I not come out he wouldn't have even raked the mortar lines, they were flush with the brick, not to mention smeared everywhere.





I figured my best chance was to at least try to knock off the excess mortar with a wire brush. All that did was put black marks on the brick. I read that acid can work but I didnt want to ruin the finish on the switch.

So I was going to have to remove and replace the brick.
Easy enough, drill out the mortar lines and hammer out the bricks.



I've cut plenty of brick in my days, flushing in devices. I've never actually laid brick though, how hard can it be? LOL

I started with just a brick hammer, I've seen those guys do it plenty, just chip away and.. Yeah, epic failure.

So I picked up a masonry blade for my compound miter saw. Outstanding!

It makes a huge mess but the results are really good.

So now I can start installing the brick.. The first batch I mixed with a strip of plywood. Bad idea, I thought I had rheumatoid arthritis after 1 smal batch.

So I picked up a bit for my torquey 1/2 inch drill motor. What a snap!

So I start putting in the brick. They always say to butter the ends.. Whoever said that knows how to properly mix mortar LOL

Here are the tools I used.. The jackhammer blade for the hammer drill was awesome!



So here is the finished project. I can officially cross "lay brick" off my bucket list. I didnt put any masons out of business but it's done.

Fun fact. I used nearly 70 pounds of mortar mix. 35% of it fell to the ground where I was working!

Finished. The brick is still wet so the color isn't quite uniform.

 

[Wakey]

Not sure why the orientation of the pics are wrong..

 

[/pine]

Looks good...
FWIW...They cost a little more but diamond blades cut much faster and cleaner than composite masonry blades...I use smaller ones on my angle grinders quite often doing stone/masonry work...

 

[jaxs]

I like someone to direct a stream of water from a garden sprayer onto blade as it cut's. Still make's a mess but save's breathing dust. A bag is handy for mortaring in tight quarters. That look's much better than my attempts.

 

[oosik]

Your repair looks very nice. The original job looks like its done by the Marx brothers.

 

[MossRoad]

Not sure why the orientation of the pics are wrong..

Phone pics do that sometime with the preview, but they look good when they are opened.

I worked for a brick mason in high school... carrying bricks and feeding the mixer. I learned a lot... like I never wanted to be a brick layer! :laughing: That's some heavy stuff by lunchtime!

Nice job! :thumbsup: