Vernon in Virginia~Formerly Alaska
New member
Some of you remember about a month ago I started digging out a pad to make a brick patio for the bench to sit on. I did this because the teak bench was sinking into the ground.
[attachment 30077 sunkpad.jpg]
In the first photo, is the finished excavation, ready for sand. I took out three and a half wheel barrow loads of broken bricks from this little hole. To tell you the truth, if I had known it would be this much work, I wouldn't have done it.
[attachment 30078 brickpad3.jpg]
Here is the finished product with a couple hundred of hand-made 200 year old bricks of various sizes, shapes and thicknesses. Putting this together was like a puzzle, trying to get the bricks to fit. Many a row came back out and was restarted.
[attachment 30079 bench1.jpg]
Here is the bench sitting on the pad; I left enough room on each end to add an antique-looking (Wal Mart) large planter pot.
[attachment 30080 bench3.jpg]
Here's another shot of the bench and pad. I did a quick photo shop grass patch in to cover up some of the dirt.
[attachment 30081 firepit.jpg]
And where did I get these bricks? This is what's left of a 5 foot tall barbecue pit I gingerly dismantled with a hammer and a pry bar. I'm guessing someone with rudimentary brick layer skills put this up about 50 years ago or so, using some of the left over bricks from the cook house that was torn down.
I had to knock the mortar off of each brick, then scrub the good side in a bucket of water. So in actuality, this was two jobs, building a brick patio, and tearing down a brick fireplace. GET-R-DONE!
[attachment 30077 sunkpad.jpg]
In the first photo, is the finished excavation, ready for sand. I took out three and a half wheel barrow loads of broken bricks from this little hole. To tell you the truth, if I had known it would be this much work, I wouldn't have done it.
[attachment 30078 brickpad3.jpg]
Here is the finished product with a couple hundred of hand-made 200 year old bricks of various sizes, shapes and thicknesses. Putting this together was like a puzzle, trying to get the bricks to fit. Many a row came back out and was restarted.
[attachment 30079 bench1.jpg]
Here is the bench sitting on the pad; I left enough room on each end to add an antique-looking (Wal Mart) large planter pot.
[attachment 30080 bench3.jpg]
Here's another shot of the bench and pad. I did a quick photo shop grass patch in to cover up some of the dirt.
[attachment 30081 firepit.jpg]
And where did I get these bricks? This is what's left of a 5 foot tall barbecue pit I gingerly dismantled with a hammer and a pry bar. I'm guessing someone with rudimentary brick layer skills put this up about 50 years ago or so, using some of the left over bricks from the cook house that was torn down.
I had to knock the mortar off of each brick, then scrub the good side in a bucket of water. So in actuality, this was two jobs, building a brick patio, and tearing down a brick fireplace. GET-R-DONE!
