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Serious question, has anyone else found a full masonry damper frozen shut with old cement?
Had a job in a 1920s house in Pasadena last week where the damper was completely stuck. The owner said it hadn't been opened in maybe 30 years. I thought it would be a simple tap with a hammer and chisel, but the old mortar had basically turned to rock. It took me and my partner over four hours of careful chipping to free it up without cracking the firebrick. What's the fastest way you've found to deal with that kind of cement buildup?
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briannguyen8h ago
That old Pasadena mortar basically becomes part of the house. I had one last month where the damper was sealed up like a tomb. We went through three masonry bits just drilling pilot holes to start cracking it. The dust alone was a historic event. I started wondering if the original bricklayer was having a laugh at us from beyond the grave.
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Man, that old cement turns into something else entirely. Briannguyen is right about the dust, it's like opening a time capsule. We had luck on a brutal one last fall using a small rotary hammer with a flat chisel bit, just working the edges slowly. The key was keeping everything wet with a spray bottle to keep the dust down and stop the brick from heating up. It still took most of the afternoon, but it felt a lot more controlled than just hitting it with a hammer.
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