I've started demolishing the 9 inch solid brick walls that form the base to an ancient greenhouse. The plan is to put them in the skip we will be hiring for the remains of two ancient fireplaces (one built of 'yorkstone' concrete blocks already down, one a cast concrete in situ tiled job that the installers will deal with). Bloody the bricks are hard. No frog and standard red colour surface, but the centres are like blue bricks. Each one is stamped H(W)T. The half inch layer of concrete on the top of the walls is the biggest problem to get it started, but a sledge hammer is working OK and I have plenty of time. Difficult to avoid breaking the bricks up though as the mortar used seems particularly hard (it was probably built in the 20's or 30's). I'm assuming nobody is going to be interested in them for re-cycling even on freegle, but I thought I would check and be a bit more careful if anyone knows they are sought after for restoration work. Googling doesn't turn up anything relevant for "H(W)T" + brick though. -- +-------------------------------------------------------------------+ | Pete Fisher at Home: | | Aprilia Shiver Yamaha WR250Z/Supermoto "Old Gimmer's Hillclimber" | | Gilera GFR * 2 Moto Morini 2C/375 Morini 350 "Forgotten Error" | +-------------------------------------------------------------------+
Wot he said. Some types are "blue" but others have a conventional clay-coloured exterior. Used for extra strength but also where frost-resistance might be important.
That figures for a greenhouse I suppose. I had hoped that leaving it with the timber and glass removed for 6 months might allow the weather to soften it all up a bit. They've certainly resisted the frost. I think the top course have also been set in extra sodding hard resistant mortar. Oh well. I've made some inroads in to it this afternoon by attacking the weak points were there are gaps for greenhouse heater flues. Like working on a chain gang it is, but my time's my own and it'll get me fit. The lad can help when it's time to barrow the remains all the way from the bottom of the garden to load in to a skip at the front. -- +-------------------------------------------------------------------+ | Pete Fisher at Home: | | Aprilia Shiver Yamaha WR250Z/Supermoto "Old Gimmer's Hillclimber" | | Gilera GFR * 2 Moto Morini 2C/375 Morini 350 "Forgotten Error" | +-------------------------------------------------------------------+
Just be thankful it isn't reinforced concrete. I had an air-raid shelter in my garden that I think was probably built during the postwar period when anxiety about nuclear attack was at it height. It was about 8 foot by 6 foot and was over 6 feet high. The walls were about 12 inches thick and so was the roof. Having failed to make any impression on it by conventional means I finally got rid of it when I had a back-garden makeover. It took 3 guys, working with a pneumatic drill and sledgehammers etc nearly 3 full days to demolish it completely. It was fascinating to see what it had been reinforced with. A wide range of metallic objects could be seen hanging out of chunks of concrete. Apart from some chunky iron bars it was also possible to identify a bed frame, a bicycle and some weird pipe-like thing with cooling fins (it didn't look like anything from an internal combustion engine).
they sound like the "Broadmoor Cinderford" bricks that were used on the extension & outbuilding on mum's old house in the Wye Valley. We recycled the ones from the pig cots to make a wall. They were very heavy, hard and black in the middle. These had a slight frog. I assumed as there were a coal mines next to the (still operating)[1] brick works that some of the slag found its way into the mix. Absolute bastards to break in half. not here http://www.penmorfa.com/bricks/index.html although you might want to check. Rare bricks can be worth a few bob. [1] http://www.penmorfa.com/bricks/coleford_brick.htm
In the past I could have been accused of being something of a brick collector. As a result I have brick paths and little patches of hard standing everywhere made from bricks from a variety of sources. I also have a "stone pile" where uncleaned bricks and other stuff go before they become cleaned bricks and/or hardcore. The process of violently moving this pile around will, over time, separate most of the mortar from the brick and for those that don't there is always the pleasant summer's day spent with small lump hammer and bolster making it so.
If the bricks aren't coming away cleanly from the mortar then you can still sell the resulting rubble as "clean hardcore": people dump it in foundations or use it to improve tracks. Make sure there's no metal in it though.
I'll be retaining some of it myself for the base of the shed/workshop that will replace it. I never thought anyone would actually pay for it. There'll be a fair amount as it's a 9 inch solid 10 x 7 feet rectangle wall about 3 foot high. They would have to collect though, I'm not delivering - well no further than from the bottom of my garden to a skip at the front anyway. I'm hoping for a good hard frost after all the rain now I have removed most of the concrete cap layer. Cup of coffee just now and then out to have another swing at it - I may be some time. -- +-------------------------------------------------------------------+ | Pete Fisher at Home: | | Aprilia Shiver Yamaha WR250Z/Supermoto "Old Gimmer's Hillclimber" | | Gilera GFR * 2 Moto Morini 2C/375 Morini 350 "Forgotten Error" | +-------------------------------------------------------------------+
My time is free, hiring isn't, and I don't want to spend all of any one day doing it. That will be the fall back strategy if I haven't got it down before the skip for the fireplace removal rubble arrives. Anyway, knocking seven bells out of things with a sledge hammer is good aerobic exercise and an outlet for pent up anger. -- +-------------------------------------------------------------------+ | Pete Fisher at Home: | | Aprilia Shiver Yamaha WR250Z/Supermoto "Old Gimmer's Hillclimber" | | Gilera GFR * 2 Moto Morini 2C/375 Morini 350 "Forgotten Error" | +-------------------------------------------------------------------+
Going better than expected. Perfected my swing with the sledge hammer and changed my strategy to attacking the bottom course on top of what seems to be a rudimentary DPC. Knock a couple of end on bricks out at the start of the run than ommer down and crack the rest off. A major breakthrough near the next corner when a large chunk came away in one go (good job I had 'toe-tectors' on. I now realise I can get rid of a lot of the resulting rubble in the new base. I may also leave the wall nearest the newer aluminium sectional greenhouse in place. A bit close for swinging a hammer or even using a kango, and I can slot the new shed in to place next to it, though that may be a bit tight for air circulation and getting to it to slosh on preservative. More than 50% of the whole structure down already. This old gimmer Charles Atlas rocks. -- +-------------------------------------------------------------------+ | Pete Fisher at Home: | | Aprilia Shiver Yamaha WR250Z/Supermoto "Old Gimmer's Hillclimber" | | Gilera GFR * 2 Moto Morini 2C/375 Morini 350 "Forgotten Error" | +-------------------------------------------------------------------+
