How to Repair Damaged Fireplace Bricks

A damaged fireplace can be a hazard to your home with small pieces of bricks falling out onto your floor. This will give a good reason to think that the fireplace could completely fall down to the floor in your living area. This can be a hint that you will need to repair or even replace your entire fireplace before it gets worse and completely falls down.

What you must do first to take care of the situation is decide if all you need to do is just take out the troublesome brick causing the problem or also remove other bricks surrounding it. If it is just a single brick it may be easier to repair just the one brick, but if it is crumbling around the one brick then other bricks may need removed along with it. Just repairing one brick if need be, is not a hard job. All you will need to do is pick up the pieces of the brick that has fallen down and put them back in the correct position with glue. The glue should be strong enough to hold the brick in place and used for both indoor and outdoor purposes. You can also use some mortar if you choose. Mortar will hold up better then glue if the brick is going to be close to the fire.

If you find out that the brick will be easily removed, then go ahead and take the brick out then you can go to the store and purchase a new one to replace it. By adding a new brick, it is important to make sure that all the old mortar is taken out first. A set of pliers will usually take care of this problem, but sometimes a hammer and a pick will be needed if the pliers do not do the job of removing the old mortar. Be careful not to loosen any of the other bricks while doing this job because you do not want to create any additional problems for yourself. Once you are sure the area is cleaned out enough add a small amount of mortar to the bottom of the replacement brick as you put it back into place where the other brick came out, then fill mortar in the sides and the top. After you get the brick in place with the mortar, take your finger and go over the mortar to create an indentation between the old bricks and the new one.

Just by chance, if you find out that the broken brick is just the start to a big problem you will need to figure out if repairing the entire wall of bricks is something you want to consider or if you want a professional to come in to do the job for you. Many times if you are not skilled at doing this type of work, you may benefit from hiring someone who knows what they are doing to get the bricks back in place in an orderly fashion.