Brick Career Guide and Counseling

Question: What type of brick, color of brick, and construction style should be used to create a student memorial? I want to create a brick pier for a student memorial in order to honor students who have passed away at my college. What type of brick, color of brick, and construction style (e.g. Gothic architecture) should be used to create this student memorial? Thanks a lot.

Answer: Should be the same as the brick or stone on campus. I assume you have campus approval for this, and they would have a say in the design of it

Question: Should I paint the brick on my house? I have a brick house with some wood siding. We are planning on painting the siding and are considering painting the brick too. I like the look of painted brick and think it might freshen everything up. Is there any reason why we should not paint the brick? Thanks!

Answer: If u'r gonna paint u'r brick outside, u need to prepare it to accept the paint thru the weather. On the OTHER hand... y not just enhanse u'r brick by putting a glaze/stain over it. U'll need to pressure wash it as well & let it throughly dry then take a stain of the same shade or of one of the colors & go over it. Or u can make a glaze w/ outdoor paint. The stain & glaze will protect u'r brick from the elements & if it comes off... it will blend in & look like the brick already. Painted brick is nice to some extent, but outside, I wouldn't mess w/ it unless u get some concrete stain. Ask u'r hardware paint dept. If u'r really wanting to paint the brick. Don't use ordinary outdoor house paint . It won't last on outdoor brick.

Question: How do you clean a brick fireplace hearth? We have a brick hearth on our fireplace.I have used hot soapy water and a brush to clean it in the past but it still doesn't look clean.It still has a greyish look to it from ashes.The brick are redish brown.The wall that the fireplace is on is entirely brick and the hearth looks like it doesn't even match the wall even though it is the same brick.How do I get the hearth clean?

Answer: I wouldn't use muriatic acid here. That's not its appropriate use. If all else fails, try trisodium phosphate. It's sold in hardware stores as TSP. Follow the use and safety instructions on the label. It will clean the brick and help restore some of the original color.

Question: How much does a brick cost per unit? How much do retailers pay for bricks before selling them to the customer? Their gross-up margin? Amount of materials needed to produce a brick? Output of bricks for a company to be profitable? Any info helps!

Answer: go to a brick yard, or call and ask, telling them you are doing home work.

Question: How to build a fake brick wall? Me and my friends need to build a fake brick wal, because we're reconstructing the scene from Mallrats for one of our film classes. What would be the cheapest way to build a brick wall? (aside from finiding an actual brick wall)

Answer: i am not very good in this, but i'd imagine make four lines of wood - put them all together on the floor. Screw them together then put a board measured same type (do all the details of the measurements) and screw them four sides of the wood. then you can colour the bored and it won't show that it is around the wooden made thing. i'm not sure, but seen some builders make this. why don't you go: http://www.ehow.com/how_10151_build-simple-reinforced.html

Question: How do I go about sealing my brick back steps so that the mortar stops eroding? I have a small brick landing at my back door with five brick stairs leading down into the yard. The brick is about seventy years old and seems to be eroding. Some of the bricks on the ends of the stairs are loosening and the mortar is chipping away in other places. Is there something I can do? I understand sealant could help, is that true? What type? And how is it applied? Thanks!

Answer: Go to Home Depot or Lowe's and ask them about Thompson's Water Seal. It's supposed to help prevent water damage on wood, concrete, bricks, etc.

Question: How do you cut a brick to size? I need to patch a hole in a brick wall. I am estimating that I will need about a dozen bricks or so for the repair. I have done some re-pointing on my house before so I am OK with the mortar part. Just not sure how to cut brick. Do I use a chisel? Saw?

Answer: Please do not any blade that is not intended for the cutting of brick. If you use a masonry blade on a circular saw, make sure the brick is secured and will not be thrown. A brick set chisel is cheaper than buying a masonry hammer and will give you good results.

Question: How can I change the look of my brick home without painting it? We are in the process of purchasing a new home. It is a brick home, but with that 90's kind of style. It is all one color and a dark red which neither my husband or I really care for. What can we do to change the look? I've seen some of the newer brick homes that look like the mortar is spread all over the brick as if it is being used as a texture right over the brick. It breaks up the color a bit and looks a little more modern. We don't want to paint, because we think we might have the wrong style of home for this. Any good ideas? We live in the DFW area of Texas where brick homes are very common. Thanks in advance.

Answer: Start small and try to change the accents of your home. Maybe some eye-catching shutters along the windows, some window boxes or a front door that really "wows" you would completely change the look of your home. Just a thought. :-)

Question: How can I put a brick archway into a bedroom? I want to put a brick archway in my bedroom. My room is very tall, and is on the top floor of a three story house. I'm not sure if I should even use real brick, but with the way my room is painted, a brick arch would look terrific. I need to know a cheap way to do this, and one that's easy. Any help is greatly appreciated! feel free to comment if you have any questions.

Answer: Enlist the services of a professional to ensure the job is executed correctly and safely. If $$ is a strain visit your local Home Depot, Lowes or other home improvement store and ask for instructions/tips. These specialty stores often have Do-It-Yourself workshops that you can attend as well. And don't be above calling a professional for an estimate/consultation. Have the person visit and ask as many questions as possible regarding the job such as : how they plan to do it, how long it will take, materials they will use, will it require more than one person, etc. Ask the questions pay attention and take notes and then just do the job yourself with the info they provided.

Question: How can we create an arched brick fireplace without the bricks falling out of the arch before the mortar sets? We want to build an arched brick enclosure for our woodstove but can't figure out how the arch sits in place until dried. It seems that the bricks would just slide off while waiting to dry?! Help!

Answer: It's easy. Build a wood form out of 1/2" plywood cut into the shape of the arch. Use two plywood arches about 5" apart, front to back, for the bricks to rest on while the mortar sets. Position this form in the exact spot where you want the arch and secure it so it can't move. Then simply line up the brick along the top of the plywood form and mortar them together. Keep the mortar wet and covered in plastic so it does not dry out for at least 3 days. Then disassemble the plywood and the brick arch will stand on its own. You cannot do this without a temporary form.

Question: How much would it cost to get all new brick on my house? My house is all brick, but it is fairly old and a lot of the brick is very worn and the cement between the bricks is coming out. We were thinking of getting all new brick, but want to get a rough idea of how much it would cost. Per brick or a certain area. Any ideas? Any links would be great also!

Answer: The cost will vary according to your region and the cost of labor in your area. You can find more guidance on the following web page about masonry siding: http://www.building-your-green-home.com/masonry-siding.html Hope this helps!

Question: How do you use brick to cap a block wall? I have a 8 inch wide block wall that I would like to cap with standard brick. I am concerned about aligning the brick properly so that it doesn't hang over more on one side than the other.

Answer: A brick is the same size as the block 7-5/8 if you lay the brick as a sailer (on edge to hide holes) so it should line up perfectly

Question: How do I prevent brick pavers from icing over? We recently had new brick pavers installed on our porch and a thin sheet of ice develops in the morning. This occurs even when no water was present. How do I prevent the ice from forming? do the bricks need to be treated with anything?

Answer: If it's bricks you shouldn't have that problem because they should be dense clay. You probably have interlocking concrete pavers. Concrete pavers are fairly porous and absorb a fair amount of water. There is probably still a lot of moisture built up beneath and inside the paver system. You really don't want to do much until they completely dry. Sometimes takes anywhere from 2 weeks to 2 months depending on the ambient heat and humidity. Once completely dry you can coat with a sealer, such as a Techniseal product (Link Below), and this should cure the problem. But for now just have a small container of general purpose sand, and in the morning if you go out on the pavers just throw a little out. Try to stay away from chemicals and rock salt at this time, because it may soak into the paver system and give you a dull look once it drys and you get to seal it. Hopefully it may get warm enough, or have enough dry days to get the moisture out. Hope this helps.

Question: I want to redo my brick fireplace, how do i go about doing that? How do i remove the brick? Can i replace it with just a wall? What will be behind the brick? Is this a huge task?

Answer: Most brick that is exposed on the front of a fireplace goes back into the wall several feet. You will have to remove quite a few bricks to get back far enough to put dry wall or plaster board over it. If it is on a outside wall then you will need to remove the whole fireplace and probably the chimney as well. Then you would need to build in a "patch" of wall to match the existing wall. Have you considered dressing up the brick with ceramic tile, marble or granite? I have seen many fireplaces faced with marble, it looks very elegant. You install it in a manner similar to ceramic tile on a back splash.

Question: How do you clean the brick on a fireplace? What products have you used to clean the brick on a fireplace? I've tried researching different products on line and they all sound the same, just different methods and prices. Have you cleaned the dark brick on your fireplace? If so, what did you use, how did you do it, and did it work? Any suggestions or comments are welcome!

Answer: Simple Green works really well. Use a scrub brush if it's really caked on or just a damp towel will do. If the soot is really bad, use a mixture of ammonia and warm water. It will smell horrible but it works on almost anything. Hope this helps!

Question: How many brick would a standard home have? One single level only, and assuming the walls on the outside is two courses thick ( double brick ) and a floor area of about 175m squared with roughly 9 foot ceilings.

Answer: eh?! I see your question has a mixture of metric and imperial measurements, which seems to idicate you're probably in Canada, not in the USA. In Canada, for new construction, they usually use larger bricks requiring only 4 bricks per square foot instead of the American 7 bricks per square foot ! So, that will affect your quantity answer ! So, in that case you would need about 8,000 to 9000 bricks PER WYTHE, so 16000 to 18000 for a double-wythe brick wall. (But if you use modular size / American bricks, about 14000 per wythe, so 28000 bricks if its a double brick wythe wall) NOW, your assumption about double-wythe wall is not valid in new construction because they use wood frame and one wythe of brick now, or in earlier years they used bigger concrete blocks inside and one wythe of bricks outside. IF you are referring to an existing building from Pioneer days, THEY DID build double wythe brick walls around 150 years ago, and the bricks they used then were around 6 bricks per square foot.