How to Reclaim Antique Bricks

Determine how many bricks you need for your project based on project instructions. Add 10 percent extra to the total to ensure that you have enough of the same brick to complete the project.

Locate the source of antique bricks. If you are salvaging brick from a tear-down, make sure that you have secured the appropriate owner and municipal permissions to be on the site and to take possession of the bricks. Obtain the right bricks for the job. If you are building an outdoor project like a brick garden wall or an outdoor firepit, make sure that you salvage bricks that have weathered the outdoors. Interior brick is unglazed and usually not fired at as high a temperature. They will crumble if used in an outdoor project.

Take care of safety considerations first. If the brick is still above ground level, take precautions that the brick walls do not fall on you. Push small sections of wall away from you and do not use the pneumatic hammer on brick above your head. Wear a hardhat if you are demolishing walls and always wear steel toed boots on a construction site.

Place the tip of the pneumatic hammer in the mortar between two bricks and pull the trigger. The bricks should separate easily. Older brick mortared with limestone will be easier to separate and clean than newer brick mortared with a cement compound. Break apart all bricks with the pneumatic hammer before cleaning. Some bricks will break during this process and that is normal. With care, you should be able to recover 80 to 90 percent of the bricks intact.

Clean the remaining mortar from the individual bricks. Carefully chisel chunks of mortar from the edges of the brick. If any mortar remains that is visually unattractive, soak the brick briefly in a solution of 1:10 muriatic acid to water, following the instructions on the bottle carefully as muriatic acid is extremely caustic to skin. Dry the bricks thoroughly before use.