Many older homes come with a Brick fireplace that hasn’t been used in what may be decades. Fireplaces are an incredible commodity to have in your home and served as a vital tool to heat up homes in the past. If you’re about to remodel your home, however, you may find that the brick fireplace is out of place and needs to go.

Thankfully, you can recycle the bricks from the fireplace into another DIY project. You’ll need to remove the bricks without damaging them, though!

Step 1:

Clear the area around the fireplace of any objects that could get damaged during the take-down process, including mantelpieces. Cover the floor with plywood or an alternative protective cover.

Step 2:

With your safety goggles and gloves on, start chiseling away the mortar Layer at one of the top corners of the fireplace, above the top layer of bricks.

Step 3:

Chisel away the side mortar, next to the brick on the top layer.

Step 4:

Chisel away the bottom layer of mortar from the brick on the top layer.

Step 5:

Carefully use a pry-bar to force bricks out of the top layer. Chip more of the mortar away from the brick if there is too much resistance. Make sure that if the brick falls onto the floor, it falls gently, otherwise you won’t be able to use it again.

Tip: Place a wheelbarrow next to the fireplace and place every brick, that you pulled out, into the wheelbarrow.

Step 6:

Start chiseling away the mortar around the next brick in the top layer. Pry the brick out with the pry-bar and move along the top layer of bricks.

Step 7:

Continue this process along with the top layer of bricks. Once the top layer has been removed, you can move onto the next layer down, following the same process until the fireplace has been removed.

Recap:

Chisel away the top mortar, then side mortar, then bottom mortar around the top layer of bricks. Move sideways, removing the top layer of bricks first, and then move down to the next layer. Be careful not to damage the bricks so that you can reuse them in DIY projects!

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