crumbling brick sidewalk

18 years ago

We've lived in our new/old house a little more than two years. Part of the curb appeal was the brick walkway from the driveway to the brick steps leading to the front porch.

We don't know how long the sidewalk has been here or if it required any kind of chemical treatment. In any case, many bricks have crumbled since we've been here, creating an unpleasant, as well as dangerous, entry to the house. I've seen at HD the size and color of the bricks that make up our sidewalk. Is there a reason I can't finish breaking up the already crumbled bricks, remove them, replace them with new bricks, and apply mortar? If all this is possible, what should I do to keep the damage from happening again?

Thanks in advance, chery2

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Comments (3)

maryland_irisman
17 years ago
You can replace the crumbling brick as you indicated. There are several causes for crumbling brick. Seal the brick and mortar thouroughly. If a pourous brick was used for the walk, melting ice and then refreezing will cause the brick to start crumbling.
rjoh878646
17 years ago
Biggest cause is not using paver bricks for the walk. Use regular house bricks and they will crumble.
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erockybalboa
17 years ago
Home DIY tips Brick mortar repair

If you have gaps in your mortar , you want to fix those to prevent animals and insects from getting inside, and also from water from running into the wall, because behind this is all wood and you don't want it to rot. So what you can do is get some mortar mix from your home center, which is pretty easy to mix up- you just follow the directions. It's just powder, you add some water to it. and if you have a different colored mortar other than your standard gray, you'll want to go and find the cement color which you can add to it and tint it so it will match, and no one will be able to tell that you did this.

The next thing you want to do after you've gotten this mixed up properly is to wet the area because you always want to apply the patch onto moistened existing mortar. And once you've done that, I would recommend using rubber gloves but I don't have any on me today but I've never minded getting dirty. And nothing beats just applying this with your fingertips. You're going to just work really hard to work it in there and it looks like a terrible mess but it does clean up well. And once you've gotten it in there, smooth it out with your fingers and you're done.

Here is a link that might be useful: Brick Mortar Repair