Need to cut the face off bricks to make into veneer.?

Question

I'm putting in a gas fireplace and using the bricks as tile.. The bricks would be too thick and heavy in the location I'm using them if they were whole. I'm using the bricks because they are old bricks from my house that I've saved so I could use in projects that I want to match the rest of the house. My contractor says he'll have to rent a brick saw. It's 10 degrees here. Is this probably going to be a wet saw? Am I going to have to wait untill spring?

Answer 1

wait till spring or do it indoors. might move the operation to the garage and do a little at a time. but the saw is the way to go, and its a tad slow haveing to cull all those bricks. you might try looking around at some brick manufacturers and see if they might have them already cut and use the bricks you have on somthing else,

Answer 2

He is right about a wet saw. The other way to cut them, notching and then snapping them, that an experienced mason would use will not get you thin slices you need.

Your choices are to save the old bricks for another project and buy new face bricks, look for a corner in your basement that you can set up for cutting the old ones, or wait till spring to work outside (which is the easiest).

Answer 3

If you have a basement, you can run the wet saw in the house. It's electric, so there's not a fume issue. Noise won't be fun, but you'll be done in a day. If you can find a warm place away from the house, you could also cut them there (like a heated garage). Depending on how important the project is to you, you could even rent a heater for a garage and have him set up out there.

Otherwise, yeah, I guess you do wait until spring...

Answer 4

Because of the mess, I'd do it outside. You might want to wait for warmer weather.

Z-Brick is a product that is thinly sliced brick, about 1/4" think. I know you mentioned you really wanted your old brick look. If you can't wait, Z-Brick may be the way to go.

Or put up one of those $150 canopies that are 10'x20' and heat it with a portable propane blast-type heater and cut them out there now.

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Answer 5

Check the home supply depots for thin non structial bricks. They may have a good match for what you want..The mason with a brick saw will cost you half the price of the entire fireplace.. About $125 saw rental his labor at $45 per hour..

Answer 6

Make sure you have more of the bricks than you'll need. Cutting old brick is dodgy with %? crumbling as the saw does its work. Maybe 20% wastage?

Answer 7

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Answer 9

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