michaeladams•2d agoProlific Poster

Stopped by that old brickyard in St. Louis last week

I was driving through St. Louis and pulled over at the Meyer brick yard that's been running since the 1800s. They had a pile of handmade bricks from the 1920s that were all uneven and soft looking compared to modern machine ones. Anyone else ever used reclaimed old school bricks on a job and regretted it or loved it?

2 comments

2 Comments

holly_flores792d ago

Wait, did you have to clean a ton of old mortar off those bricks first? That's the part nobody talks about. @avery721 sounds like they had their hands full just sorting through the pile, but I bet that patio turned out killer. My cousin tried using reclaimed brick from an old schoolhouse for a fireplace and spent three weekends chipping off dried cement with a hammer and chisel. In the end half the bricks were too busted up to use, but the ones that made it looked way better than any new brick you can buy today. The uneven shapes gave it this old-timey feel that new stuff just can't fake.

avery7212d ago

Used a bunch of old Chicago common bricks on a patio job a few years back. They looked amazing once they were laid, all those little imperfections and color variations gave it way more character than new bricks ever could. The real hassle was sorting through them, had to toss out maybe a quarter of them that were too crumbly or chipped up to use. Took way longer than using fresh material but the homeowner still brags about it, so I'd say worth the extra work if you've got the patience.