Brick Repointing Tools

[ajkoontz]

I've got a small, non-structural, brick half wall at the corner of my house that needs some repair. I've neglected it for too long and I've got to replace a few bricks, in addition to who knows what I'll find once I tear into it. It's a circa 1987-ish house. Anyway, I think I'm going to repoint the whole thing while I'm at it. I'm in the planning/ prep stage now and thinking about what tools and supplies I'll need. I think I will use an angle grinder to remove the mortar, and to remove any damaged bricks. Some of the bad ones I can pull out by hand, but a few have flaked off at the face and I will replace assuming I can find suitable replacement bricks and I can get them out without doing more harm than good. They are what I call 'used brick' in that they are fairly irregular and have paint and whatnot splattered randomly on the face. Going from memory, the wall is roughly 6'x3'x2bricks deep with a four faced 'end post'. In that, I probably have a dozen or so bad brick. I figured I will use a 3:1 cement mortar.

So my main question is what type of blade to buy for my angle grinder? Will a normal kerf diamond blade do the job, or should I purchase a specialty repointing blade? Or something else? I assume I also need a sharp point and a flat point cold chisel? Anything else I'm missing?

I've watched a few videos and I think I've got the gist of how to tackle this, but I posted all the background info in case anyone wants to throw any other advice my way.

[Stwood_]

Your local brick supplier should have advise about those tools.
On the bricks, do you have a deconstruction yard around there? Those places usually have used bricks from tear downs.

[Cooler]

1987 is not that old.  I'm surprised that it needs repointing.

My house is from 1953 (all brick) and no trace of erosion.  Repointing is far, far in the future.

What kind of environment is it subject to?

Proper maintenance seems to be simply inspecting the bricks.  The average life expectancy for a brick wall is 100 - 150 years.  So 1987 seems very young.

The link supplies more information.

http://www.gobrick.com/docs/default-sour...asonry.pdf

[Roly]

I have always just used a masonry grinding wheel in the angle grinder for re pointing.   Be sure and use a respirator when grinding.  Get a cheap angle grinder (Harbor Freight) for the masonry use as it will destroy bearings after prolong usage.    Roly

[ajkoontz]

1987 is not that old.  I'm surprised that it needs repointing.

My house is from 1953 (all brick) and no trace of erosion.  Repointing is far, far in the future.

What kind of environment is it subject to?

Proper maintenance seems to be simply inspecting the bricks.  The average life expectancy for a brick wall is 100 - 150 years.  So 1987 seems very young.

The link supplies more information.

http://www.gobrick.com/docs/default-sour...asonry.pdf

I guess a picture is worth a thousand words. So here is the wall that needs fixing. The water in the pic is just some splash from the trash can I moved to take the pic. That being said, I think water is the enemy here. I have similar wall on the other side of the house and it's in good shape. Not sure why this one is failing, other than I had some smallish infiltration areas that didn't get fixed and led to bigger problems. My plan is to re-do the entire cap, and replace the other few bricks in the field that have failed. Also, to repoint the entire wall front and back. The mortar along the house has almost completely failed, so repointing may not be enough there. The other face is in about the same shape. The dirt on the other side is about 3 bricks higher than the concrete in the picture. I've found some used bricks that don't exactly match, but probably as close as I can get. They are OK on color, but about 1/2" too short in the long direction. Height and width match. Anyway, this is the project. I'm going to get a masonry blade and 'disposable' angle grinder as recommended and give it a go. Any other advice?


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[ajkoontz]

Also, to add: there is a downspout on the corner of the house that you can't see. Several years ago, I extended the downspout so it runs to the concrete pad you can see in the picture to the right of the photo. It runs out across the driveway now, but it ran into the mulched area for many years, which I think led to the deterioration along the bottom rows. The top rows are I think from mortar failure that was letting rainwater in from the top. Anyway, if I don't do something soon I am going to lose the whole wall.

[fishhh4]

Get a tuck point blade

more

I didn't know about them till a buddy suggested them.

[Turner52]

I think whoever did the original work used a very weak mix. Too much sand and not eneough mortar, or a really hot day and mortar was drying on the board and he kept tempering it. Did a little mason tending when I started in construction. No matter how I mixed it one of the masons was always complaining. One it was too wet another too dry. same batch, I earned to make sure they all had a container of water and another of plain mortar. Ignored the complaing. Somebody would do it no matter how it was mixed.