How to replace a damaged brick


To replace a brick or several bricks in a wall is well within the realms of the DIY enthusiast, the biggest problem is matching up the bricks, in some cases it is far easier to cut a brick out in one piece and turn it around so that the damaged brick face is facing inwards, this is often much easier than finding a brick that matches your existing brickwork.

Many DIY manuals and old DIY'ers would recommend removing the old brick with a chisel and club hammer but personally I don't like this method as the brick can be damaged further and also the surrounding area. It makes far more sense to remove the brick by either cutting it out with a grinder and diamond disk or drilling out most of the mortar with a power drill, this means that there is very little vibration as opposed to knocking the hell out of it with a hammer and chisel! Here we are going to remove the damaged brick by drilling away the majority of the mortar.

Damaged brick

Using a Masonry bit and a drill with hammer action, drill as many holes as possible through the mortar surrounding the brick to be removed, ensure the drill is long enough to reach the other side..

Remove brick

The brick should be loose by now, if not a few gentle taps with a bolster chisel and heavy hammer will remove any remaining mortar.

Remove the brick.

Remove brick and clean hole

Using the Bolster chisel and hammer, gently remove and remaining mortar. Clean the hole where the brick has been removed from ensuring there is no debris. Wet the surrounding area with some water, this will prevent the other bricks in the wall from sucking all of the moisture from the mortar.

Apply a bed of mortar

Apply a bed of mortar to the bottom and sides of the hole using a suitable trowel.

Apply a bed of mortar to the brick

Apply some mortar to the top and sides of the brick and carefully push the brick into the hole, ensure the brick is level and square with all the others. If not you can level it be pressing more mortar into the joints with a trowel. Point the brick and leave to set.

allow to stiffen then repoint

Let the mortar stiffen slightly then re-point the mortar to match the rest of the surrounding bricks