Reusing sections of a brick wall without demolishing

ggpowell2 · 15 June 2018 at 8:23AM

This may be a silly idea but I was wondering if you can cut a brick wall out from where it is and move it somewhere else without demolishing it? It's just that I want it the same size just a different location and think it would be such a waste of time demolishing it and having to clean every single brick to then pay someone to remake it where I want it. But then if it is possible is the tool to do so very expensive or will someone charge me a lot to do this in comparison to remaking the wall, in which case I might be better off demolishing it? The size is roughly 1m width and 1.9m tall so I am not talking about a particularly large wall which would obviously be impossible to move but it is still substantial so I wonder if the weight is an issue as well.

Doozergirl · 15 June 2018 at 8:27AM

Never going to happen

missile · 15 June 2018 at 8:41AM

That wall would be very heavy to lift and probably would collapse during the move. You would need a Stihl saw.

ggpowell2 · 15 June 2018 at 8:57AM

missile wrote: »

That wall would be very heavy to lift and probably would collapse during the move. You would need a Stihl saw.

Thank you, does it make a difference that it would only be moving 2m on a flat surface?

Doozergirl · 15 June 2018 at 9:29AM

Bricks at 3kg each in an area of 2 square metres = 360kg plus mortar.

Who's moving it, exactly? You still have to pay labour. Even if you manage it one piece, the weight of the wall above would just squash any new mortar straight out.

You still need to dig the footings. Buy new bricks and build a new wall. Won't take any longer than farting around with the old one.

Grenage · 15 June 2018 at 9:44AM

To attempt this would be madness. A wall that size would not take long to build from scratch.

ggpowell2 · 15 June 2018 at 10:33AM

I will probably have to clean the bricks then as wanted continuity, thanks for the replies

armchaireconomist · 15 June 2018 at 11:01AM

Yes, it does sound silly

LandyAndy · 15 June 2018 at 11:52AM

armchaireconomist wrote: »

Yes, it does sound silly

Not as silly as you might think.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Structure_relocation

EachPenny · 15 June 2018 at 12:56PM

LandyAndy wrote: »

Not as silly as you might think.

You beat me to it

I was going to use the Ballingdon Hall example

https://historicengland.org.uk/services-skills/education/educational-images/ballingdon-hall-sudbury-4331

Moving a brick wall would be simple in comparison, but is quite a dangerous thing to attempt to do. So I certainly wouldn't advise doing it as a DIY project, and the cost of getting someone to do it for you would far exceed the cost of simply rebuilding the wall in the right place.