Jackhammering a brick wall

Oct 08, 2014 10 Replies

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Ignoramus10482 11 years ago

As part of tomorrow's "removal" operation, I have to jackhammer a brick wall.

This is done to facilitate removal of three machines (autoclaves), each about 5 feet diameter and 30 foot long. They are mounted "through the wall", so that 90% of them are outside, but the access door is on the inside.

I told the company that I would bring my tow behind compressor and jackhammer to hammer out about a foot of bricks around the autoclaves, so that then I can pull them out without having the wall follow them.

OK, so far so good.

Now I want to make sure that as I am jackhammering the wall, it would not suddenly crack, collapse, or otherwise give me trouble. This is a regular overlaid construction brick wall, partly cinderblock and partly brick.

Any experiences, am I overthinking that? Can a wall suddenly crack from local jackhammering?

Secondly, a jackhammer is very heavy, maybe 80 lbs. Obviously, no one can hold it horizontally for a long time. How do people deal with this? I wanted to have my partner support it with something suspended from forklift forks. Makes sense?

Note that I do have a jackhammer for a bobcat, but the access is no good and it will not be able to work in that area.

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Terry Coombs 11 years ago

You'll lose part of the effectiveness by suspending the hammer - gravity is your friend . But in this case , yes , it sounds good . I think I'd start the breakout at the bottom and watch for signs of structural failure .

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Ignoramus10482 11 years ago

OK, this is good, thanks. Not much we can do about lack of gravity assistance.

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Ed Huntress 11 years ago

Take a sledgehammer, too. If it's old, soft mortar, the bricks may knock out more easily that way.

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Steve W. 11 years ago

Got a demo saw? I would cut through the blocks just to be sure you remove the least amount of wall possible.

Yep. All depends on the weight distribution through the wall.

Suspended works BUT you want to be sure that the suspension point helps you by having it closer to the wall.

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Boris Mohar 11 years ago

I concur with sledgehammer idea. Done that few times and was surprised how easy it was.

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Randy333 11 years ago

Rent a small demo hammer, I think 20 or 30 pound. You will need the manueverability to knock out the bricks. The hard part is the first few, after that you can generally get them out easily.

Remove 333 to reply. Randy

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Cydrome Leader 11 years ago

I'm going out on a limb here, but maybe they use the proper tools for the job? Using a jackhammer to take out a wall sounds like something you see in a third world accident waiting to happen photo of video.

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Ignoramus19237 11 years ago

OK, it worked out good. I used a smaller jackhammer. The bricks were not adhered well to mortar, so everything came apart easily. I had to shore the holes for safety, I had two shoring jacks or whatever they are called.

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DTJ 11 years ago

Just dont do this!

formatting link

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mogulah 11 years ago

Also ig, I assume you put the phrase "brick wall demolition" into YouTube's search engine.

(several construction firms have posted previous operations there)

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