We are currently trying to sell my great uncle's home. The foundation is fine but the exterior brick has settled about 1-2inches. We have looked into hiring a contractor to jack the brick up, but we're worreid about cracking. Our estimates have been between $14-18,000.

So, instead... could we just remove the brick and replace it with siding? The house is about 1500 sq ft on the main floor with a full basement. What do you think? How hard is it to remove brick?

Thanks for any help you might have. :)

Settled brick is probably the easiest to remove,being that the mortar joints are already stressed and most likely beginning to weaken the rest of the bricks above anyway.

The biggest difficulty is staying safe while dropping a brick wall,to underestimate the sheer weight and force it brings when you are dropping it.

Scaffolding is a must in this(my opinion of course)so you can be as close to the work(Hammer ,flat bar,cold chisel,etc)and to be able to toss the brick away from you(preferably into a dump truck!)

If the settling is done,you could just side over it,using firring and nailing siding to it.

Try talking to a siding company about their options,they have probably done this before and can guide you to a satisfactory solution.

Best of luck,
Ken

Thanks KBC! That information helped a lot.

Our prayers have been answered. We got an offer on the house to sell it "as is".:D

We're keeping our fingers and toes crossed that it all goes through OK.

Thanks again!

Good to hear,best of luck with the pending sale.

Ken

Stormchaser, you sentence "foundation is fine but the exterior brick has settled about 1-2inches' scares me a bit. Those two things can't be true so be sure this sale is clearly marked "AS IS." If the buyer gets a home inspector this issue will likely surface.

Yeah, I used the term "fine" rather loosely and I probably shouldn't have. The walls are going to be needing some support added to them eventually. They are just "ok" right now (so I was told). I wasn't there when the estimates were being made, so I'm not sure what all was advised.:o We meet with our realtor (he was there) and he feels like, once we get in there and start working on it, there is probably going to be more than we realized needing to be done. :(

When this first offer came in we were very disapointed. We were kind of "low balled" so to speak. But after meeting with our realtor, he feels like it was an OK offer because these folks are willing to take it "as is" and they "claim" to have the finances to get it. We get the impression that they want to "flip it" and resell it in a couple of years because of it's prime location and land. So... we're going to let it go... cut our losses... and be done with it. (hopefully) :)

If this falls through then we will probably lower the price considerably or get in there and fix the foundation and walls, so people won't have trouble getting approval. Does that make sense? I feel like I need some more coffee to function this morning.:D

Thanks for your reply! I really appreciate it.

You are probably correct about the buyer being a flip artist. I have done several myself and loballing is the only way for me to turn a profit. If the locations is great they may even be considering a tear down. Who knows but at least you have an offer. Best of luck with the sale. Flips are usually done in a matter of weeks, maybe a month but rarely are held for years. Profits come from sales without having to make mortgage payments on the investment.

I have a three bedroom entirely brick home, single story on pier and beam foundation that I inherited from my parents. The original home was built in 1954. The remodeling that included the application of the brick exterior was done in 1972. The brick is cracking and falling away from the house because of the Texas weather and the foundation (which I had leveled). I want to remove the entire brick façade and replace it with alluminum siding. The contractor will haul off the bricks and use them himself, but he wants to know what I will pay him to remove the bricks. I want to pay a fair price. Can you give me an idea of what I should pay?