for such a small job, you could just buy a stone cutting blade that goes on a circular saw. Use a c-clamp to hold down the brick or paver. I think the blade is around $3.00. It will probably cut 10 bricks before it wears down severely.

Just use an abrasive blade in a circular saw.
Many of the smaller wet saws do not have enough clearance to cut anything more than about 3/4 of an inch thick or so.

Thank you all for your suggestions.
I used a 7 1/4" circular saw to cut stone veneer (about 75 cuts 3/4" by 10") before. After that workout my circular saw died from dust inhalation, I have not replaced it. Instead I have used a 5" battery powered one.
I'm not sure that I want to ruin another circ saw.
The wet saw model I saw was QEP 7" dia wet saw 1/3 horsepower.
Kudzu9 I am real interested in how your efforts turn out.
Any other suggestions are welcome.
Thanks again

I cut retaining wall blocks (4" thick) with a circular saw (diamond blade $15-20). I first soaked them in a 5 gal bucket of water to minimize the dust. It worked surprisingly well. I've also found other uses for the blade once I had it.

good luck

steve-
I'm starting tomorrow (Wed), and will try to remember to post that night.

Soaking the pavers is a GREAT idea, wish I'd thought of it.

Diamond blades are better than carbide ones and maybe produce less dust.

I've used my circular saw for masonry and it survived, I think the trick is to buy a real cheap one for that sort of work and demolition. You can probably revive a 'dead' saw by dismantling and cleaning, especially the switch and brushes.

An angle grinder's also very useful for this, and you can use a grinding wheel to clean off cut marks or add a bevel.

I rented a paver saw, a wet diamond one, when I did my driveway, it was sheer heaven and did a beautiful job. The other pavers I cut with a brick cutter (hydraulic and not neat enough for pavers) or the angle grinder. It was hard on the grinder but it was still going strong when I sold it last year.

stevega-
I got started today and the wet tile saw seemed to work fine. Mine is small and the blade only sticks up about 1-1/4" and my pavers are 1-1/2" so I cut through one side and flip over to the other to complete the cut. The only complication with this is that the blade guard at the back stops the cut on an 8" cut before I'm completely through, so I have to remove the guard. It's not dangerous, but it's messy with the wet spray flying. I've only cut about 4 pavers, so don't know yet if my blade is getting damaged and whether I'll have to replace it before I'm through. So far the saw seems to be cutting without bogging down, though.

Kudzu
Thanks for the update. What is the diameter of your blade? I was assuming that the 7" blade would have 2+" of cut depth. Have you tried to make a cut from one (top) side and then split the paver with a masonry chisel?

Pjb-I was very successful at doing half of your suggestion for reviving the saw. I got the dismantling done. The remantling of the 30 year old saw got me. I could never get the motor to sit in the bearings without making bad noises when I turned it on.

stevega-
My saw blade is about 6-1/4" (16cm), and it sticks up about 1-1/4" above the table. How much your blade will stick up is probably a function of the saw design, but it might not be as much as 2". I tried using a chisel on a partial cut, and that works ok, but it can sometimes chip out too much on either side of the break line. I'm about half done with the project and the blade is still doing fine.

Kudzu
Thanks again. What blade did you decide on and what was the cost? I will get the tile saw and it has two blades included. If those don't hold up I will have to get something different. I think that my pavers will be concrete based rather than clay based, but I will have to check further.

stevega-
I've just got an inexpensive saw and am still getting mileage out of the blade that came with it. When I took a closer look, it is a 7" blade, and it's no-name. It's only about 1/16" think and the cutting part is a slightly fattened rim which occupies the outer 1/4" of diameter. So far the only problem I've had is that the pavers are so heavy that it's possible to jam the blade to a stop if I'm not careful keeping the paver straight as I move it through the blade. Since pavers can be slightly irregular, it's easy to do this. My advice is to set the fence carefully, keep a close eye on the paver so it doesn't twist, and listen to the blade so that your feed rate doesn't over-task the saw.

Kudzu-you've been a great help. most of the time I "learn by doing". You have reduced the error in my trial and error. Thanks. Since most of my cuts will be angle cuts to form a curve, I will use some angle blocks as a guide to reduce the freehanding and binding. I'm still going to try to cut one side and split with a bolster. Or maybe cut a smaller groove on both sides and split.

stevega-
Good luck. Cutting on both sides should work and would be a good way to have a clean edge. I'd love to hear how it turns out.

Kudzu9 and all,
I have nearly finished cutting pavers with the tile saw and have learned a few things. Overall, the saw works well. It cost $82 from HD. The blade it came with made about 50 full depth cuts before replacement. I have made another 50+ cuts with the replacement blade ($14) and it is still ok.
1. I had to remove the splitter and safety shield because the pavers are 2 3/8" thick and would interfere.
2. Most of the cutting was done freehand from the back of the saw dragging the pavers toward me. This got me out of the spray and gave me a better view and feel to keep the cut straight and avoid stalling the blade. The fence was not parallel enough to the blade to avoid binding, especially with a ton of grit in it.
3.The reservoir becomes clogged with cement mud and needs to be flushed every hour or two to avoid starving the blade of water and overheating.
4. Where a single cut is required on a block, I made only 1 cut and broke the block with a bolster.
5. For border wedges, I had to sever each cut with the saw from top and bottom to preserve the line because the bolster break can be uneven.
6. My pavers are "tumbled" so I chipped each cut edge with a chipping hammer to look like the others. That was fast and easy
7. I will have used the saw for 4 days. The rental price for a masonry wet saw was $57/day plus a charge for blade wear? Cutting dry is crazy dusty and I had to replace a circular saw the last time when I cut rock dry.

Take your time and the tile saw does fine. Thank you all for your input.

steve-
Sounds like it worked great...congratulations.

One comment. I don't know what your fence is like, but mine has a tension adjustment and a clamp; I just set it parallel, front and back, with a tape measure, and use the maximum tension available to keep it tight to the table. Occasionally, I have also used a board clamped to the table as a supplementary fence.

And thanks for the idea of working on the opposite side from the spray. I'll try that next time so that I don't have a dripping orange stripe runnning down my face, shirt, and pants!