It would have to be made of stainless steel, lead, or lead-coated copper or plastic to survive very long in full contact with exterior brick.

how about cast aluminum?

Aluminum will corrode when in contact with brick mortar but would last longer than steel especially if it is annodized.

My neighbor hood was built in the mid 70's. Most of the original brick mailboxes are still in place, functional, and showing no signs of major rusting. They were built using the cheap painted sheet steel boxes. The same as Evil Orange sells for $15-$20.

I live in Houston. Although not generaly considered part of the "rust belt", we have lots of humidity and rain and most stuff does seem to rust pretty quickly.

Cast aluminum boxes look nice but the hinges don't look very sturdy. Think about how hard it would be to replace the box if it gets broken. Blowe's sells a box made from 1/8" steel for about $50.

Perhaps a galvanized steel box would work. You can paint it with asphalt roofing cement too.

Try www.mailboxes.com

I have a question in a similar vein. I have a bricked-in mailbox which (being 15 years old) is now somewhat rusted and beat-up looking. I'd like to replace it, but I'm worried that whoever built it meant it to be there forever. It's not screwed or bolted in, but may be brick and mortared in. It's got some play/give near the front end, but the back end seems pretty solidly in there. Any suggestions on
-getting the old one out (without ripping down the brick) and
-getting the new one set in?

how much should a double mailbox with brick and limeston and address blocks cost? some quoted 1400 for it. Is that reasonalble

At that price, I'd be doing it myself.

I saw a trick where there was a lot of trouble with kids hitting mailboxes while driving by. This guy got one the really big boxes and a little one. He set the little one inside the big one and filled the gap with concrete. I wish I could have seen the face of the first kid that tried to hit that while driving by :-)

I think I would buy a decent steel box and coat it as restreet mentioned with either the asphalt cement or whatever they use to seal the outside of a foundation. Maybe that is also asphalt cement?

-Eastrick

In our state, brick mailboxes are prohibited on state maintained roads due to them being dangerous in case of an accident. Please do check with your local regulations before planning anything that you could be cited for and forced to tear down.

That's amazing. Are telephone poles illegal, too? Fire hydrants?

Sorry for the sarcasm, I just can't believe some of the laws out there.

-Eastrick

yea, that $1400 price tag was for the 6 ft cement footing and the work to do the double mailbox with a flower part area bricked in between. That does include the limestone tops or the mail boxes or the address stones or the bricks or the mortar. Just the labor to do it all and the footing. Is that price crazy? How much should it cost?

The not allowing brick mailboxes reminds me of something I saw a few years ago.
A house over on an intersecting road from the road we lived on at the time had his mailbox hit by a drunk driver. The mailbox was on a metal pipe probably 4" in diameter This pipe was sunk at least 3-4 feet into the ground with a hefty layer of concrete around it. The car's front end was demolished. It had a nice V where it hit the post. The entire post was uprooted from the ground. We happened to drive by it after it happened before they towed the car away.The post then laid there for a few days.Pipe was probably filled with concrete also to do as much damage it did.

We then saw the car go by on the back of the tow truck while eating pizza at a local pizza shop.

I can see someone getting killed hitting a brick mailbox going 55 MPH. That's why they are outlawed.

I guess my sarcasm about the outlawed brick mailbox has to do with the fact that there are a lot worse things a person could hit. How about a car going in the opposite direction on a two-lane 55 mph rural road? Not to mention power poles, parked cars, buildings, etc. People hit this stuff all the time, yet they are not outlawed. If laws keep getting written like this, we will soon be driving around in inflatable cars.

JoshD- Sorry to hijack your post. I'll let it go now.

-Eastrick

Yeh.. but I won't.... our brick mail box was the only thing that kept a car front launching up into my livingroom.. yep it stopped the car and so what of it. They were speeding and drunk and had they made it up into the house it would have killed some of my children so pooh on them for hitting my mailbox. I hate to be so crass but that one has deep feelings for me. There are a MILLION other things they could hit with the same bulk as others have mentioned so I just see it as another one of those stupid rules you see on the books that are suppose to protect us from ourselves when we are at our most stupid.. but the kick is.. that is almost impossible.

Now at this point we do not have a brick mailbox since yes the quote of $1000 does not seem too far off what we got. Of course the idiot who blew ours down did not have insurance of course so until I get some time we have a box sitting on top of a 4x4.. charming hu??

maddiemom

There is a cast aluminum mailbox door that look great on brick mailboxes.
The can also be used to repair older brick mailboxes

Here is a link that might be useful: www.MailboxDoor.com

Since my previous post, I built a brick mailbox. I used the 1/8" thick steel malbox from Blowes $50. Baked enamel finish, nice magnetic door catch. I did not put any additional coating on it. I now have a lot more respect for bricklayers.
No sign of rust yet, but it's only been 1 year. If it ever does rust out, the replacement door at mailboxdoor.com looks like a great idea.

I did some reading on the legal issues. In most cases, that's not really your land you are putting the mailbox on. It's the "highway right of way". If you intentionaly place an unreasonably hazardous obstruction in the highway right of way, you could be liable for damages. This is not a clear cut issue by a long shot. Telephone poles and fire hydrants have no reasonable alternative to there location or construction. A mailbox has an alternative which is minimaly hazardous (a metal box on a 4x4 wood post) and serves it's function adequately.
Also a brick mailbox on a thru street or rural road with a higher speed limit is much more of a hazard than on a residential side street with a 20 mph limit.
The prevalence of brick mailboxes in your neighborhood also will have some bearing on how much of a hazard you are creating.
How likely you are to get sued over something like this varies a lot by location. How likely you are to lose the lawsuit depends as always, who has the best lawyer!

You can , however back up 10 or 15 feet to just outside the right of way, and build a 10' thick 10' high concrete wall with no liability issues that i'm aware of.

No one has ever mentioned exactly how much it should cost to make one here.

If you have built one yourself, how much did it cost you? How long did it take you to do it yourself?

Reason I ask is because a while back someone mentioned $1400 to have someone do it, and then someone posted that was a bit high - do it yourself. So, any ideas on a reasonable COST to do this???

Thanks.