Old bricks

Hi folks!
I wanted to see if anyone had ideas for using old bricks and brick shaped rocks that once made up some kind of structure. There is a whole pile on my property and more to be found I’m sure.
My mind thinks root cellar/food storage type structure but I’d love to hear other ideas.

Hi Tori,
How about a raised garden bed? A fire pit? A paved patio?

Matt McSpadden wrote:Hi Tori,
How about a raised garden bed? A fire pit? A paved patio?

Hey Matt,
Those are great ideas and my hubby did make a fire pit already with some of them. I usually use wood for the raised beds but a brick one sounds cool!

Use them to line a hole for dutch oven cooking.

Make a rocket stove or pizza oven.

Retaining walls.

Brick path.

Garden bench.

Garden bed edging.

I built a keyhole garden with mine.

If you have raised bed planters, you can build an aquaponic pond at an elevation lower than the raised beds. It's a fairly simple process. My pond was approximately 12' long, and 4' to 6' wide, as it was kidney shaped. I dug the pond by hand to a depth of 3'. I used about 2 yards of "road base" gravel which equates to a depth of about 6", and hand tamped to form a flat stable surface. Then I spread a 4" layer of play sand over the top of the road base. I happened to have a swimming pool liner which I laid over the sand. All that may not be necessary if you have clay substrate, or you could use a layer of quick set concrete, and spread sand over that before it dries. Then, I built a wall from discarded bricks 2' above ground level. I added a pond pump which pumps water up to the raised beds, and added 1-1/2" PVC pipe as drains from the raised beds back to the pond. I put Tilapia,, and Perch in the pond. The fish poop acts as fertilizer for the plants, which in essence returns clean water to the pond. It worked great. But winter hold over required a heater for the pond, so the fish became food for my neighbor, and his farm animals. I just replaced the fish in the spring. The veggies, and flowers grew fantastic, and tasted great.
It was very relaxing to sit by the pond watching the fish swim around the pond. I'm not sure how many fish I should have added, but I had 8 raised beds 4'x8' and added 20 perch, and 16 Tilapia. No rhyme nor reason, but no fish died, and the plants grew abundantly.

Tori Escobar wrote:Hi folks!
I wanted to see if anyone had ideas for using old bricks and brick shaped rocks that once made up some kind of structure. There is a whole pile on my property and more to be found I’m sure.

Sure! Create a microclimate in your garden by filling in your paths with bricks. This should help moderate our increasingly extreme temperatures. Although you might want to cover those brick-lined paths with some black material in the early spring to warm the soil for early planting...

Definitely look into making a pizza oven. They can be used for much more than cooking pizzas. And are great at keeping the heat out of the house during the summer.
Let us know what you decide to do with all those bricks and stuff.

Check out Forno Bravo for inspiration for pizza ovens

Do you know if they are fire-rated brick or not?  I don't know the difference, just that fire-rated bricks are what are used for fireplaces and chimneys.  I'd be cautious about using for an oven if I wasn't sure.  It's possible if they aren't fire-rated that they'd be more prone to cracking when heated.

Great ideas so far...I have two potential sources for fire-rated brick that I ultimately want to use to create some earthen ovens / summer kitchen area with on our acreage.  I have access to uncleaned for free, but then would have to remove the mortar and the other source is cleaned (mortar removed), but I haven't checked price.

I like the idea of using bricks as pavers / cobblestone areas as well.  They could be utilized to make a patio, or a base for an informal kitchen / prep spot.  Paths are also a good use, especially if you have muddy areas that these would allow you to move around more easily.

If you want to get creative, how about something like an inukshuk?  These were traditionally made with stones, but bricks could be a whimsical alternative.  Of course, getting creative could lead to other rustic statues.

Depending on the brick structure (i.e. holes?), perhaps some could be used to contain bird seed or similar uses (nothing coming to mind, but I'm not typically the most creative).

Good luck.

Pathways and walkways, think cold snow and being above the milk-I look for old bricks daily and will pick up a few, I have multiple walkways within my garden area, so nice.

This is what I made two years ago in my front yard using bricks and pavers. Since then the plants have grown nicely in it. And I added a sort-of pond.

I love working with old bricks, they add character to any landscaping you want to do. I say the same as everyone else is sayin'... firepits, patios, path edges, raised beds. You've got a treasure trove there!
Here's some pics of stuff I have done with my old bricks...

Tori,

If you have a few thousand of bricks you can build a building - barn, coop, stable, storage, cellar.

Wendy Webb wrote:I love working with old bricks, they add character to any landscaping you want to do. I say the same as everyone else is sayin'... firepits, patios, path edges, raised beds. You've got a treasure trove there!
Here's some pics of stuff I have done with my old bricks...

Thanks for this...your firepit photo gives me a solution for ours that I hadn't really known needed a solution ;-)

Well, they say necessity is the mother of invention... We had just moved to this property and my siblings,  in their wisdom, figured that, since we now had the biggest house,  the family reunion planned for our parents' 60th Anniversary should be held at our place... in two months time! 😳
The place hadn't been lived in in over a year, and it wasn't well looked after when it was. The "backyard" didn't exist anymore,  taken over by 6 - 8 ft high kosha weeds, and the ground looked like it was shimmering, there were so many red ants! We needed to pull off some kind of miracle, so we chainsawed the kosha down and spread borax to get the ants under control. I dug a circle 22 ft in diameter, 1 ft deep and lined it with old used cement blocks from a stack we found on the property.  Gary used the dirt I'd shoveled out of the pit to landscape around it, throwing in whatever seed we had on hand. He cut stumps for tables between the bargain sale chairs and we scavenged an old rim from a semitruck. Voila! We had an outside entertainment centre for 20+ people 😆

Walt Danials wrote:If you have raised bed planters, you can build an aquaponic pond at an elevation lower than the raised beds. It's a fairly simple process. My pond was approximately 12' long, and 4' to 6' wide, as it was kidney shaped. I dug the pond by hand to a depth of 3'. I used about 2 yards of "road base" gravel which equates to a depth of about 6", and hand tamped to form a flat stable surface. Then I spread a 4" layer of play sand over the top of the road base. I happened to have a swimming pool liner which I laid over the sand. All that may not be necessary if you have clay substrate, or you could use a layer of quick set concrete, and spread sand over that before it dries. Then, I built a wall from discarded bricks 2' above ground level. I added a pond pump which pumps water up to the raised beds, and added 1-1/2" PVC pipe as drains from the raised beds back to the pond. I put Tilapia,, and Perch in the pond. The fish poop acts as fertilizer for the plants, which in essence returns clean water to the pond. It worked great. But winter hold over required a heater for the pond, so the fish became food for my neighbor, and his farm animals. I just replaced the fish in the spring. The veggies, and flowers grew fantastic, and tasted great.
It was very relaxing to sit by the pond watching the fish swim around the pond. I'm not sure how many fish I should have added, but I had 8 raised beds 4'x8' and added 20 perch, and 16 Tilapia. No rhyme nor reason, but no fish died, and the plants grew abundantly.

That is an extremely awesome build!
Thank you for describing it so well. I would love to do this. I assume you used mortar to join the rocks that made up the side? All the water was just in the dugout in-ground area and the rocks an esthetic surrounding seat, right? Share a picture if you have one 😌

Wendy Webb wrote:I love working with old bricks, they add character to any landscaping you want to do. I say the same as everyone else is sayin'... firepits, patios, path edges, raised beds. You've got a treasure trove there!
Here's some pics of stuff I have done with my old bricks...

Thank you for those pictures. A picture is worth a thousand words… 😊

Derek Thille wrote:Do you know if they are fire-rated brick or not?  I don't know the difference, just that fire-rated bricks are what are used for fireplaces and chimneys.  I'd be cautious about using for an oven if I wasn't sure.  It's possible if they aren't fire-rated that they'd be more prone to cracking when heated.

Great ideas so far...I have two potential sources for fire-rated brick that I ultimately want to use to create some earthen ovens / summer kitchen area with on our acreage.  I have access to uncleaned for free, but then would have to remove the mortar and the other source is cleaned (mortar removed), but I haven't checked price.

I like the idea of using bricks as pavers / cobblestone areas as well.  They could be utilized to make a patio, or a base for an informal kitchen / prep spot.  Paths are also a good use, especially if you have muddy areas that these would allow you to move around more easily.

If you want to get creative, how about something like an inukshuk?  These were traditionally made with stones, but bricks could be a whimsical alternative.  Of course, getting creative could lead to other rustic statues.

Depending on the brick structure (i.e. holes?), perhaps some could be used to contain bird seed or similar uses (nothing coming to mind, but I'm not typically the most creative).

Good luck.

Thanks for these ideas!
Most of the “bricks” are actually rocks cut into brick shape strangely enough so I’m not sure they would withstand major heat. I like the idea of using them in the summer kitchen as like a patio.

Be careful. Bricks don't do well if in ground and subjected to cold winters. Papers are fired at a much higher temperature and will always be more durable. Bricks will chip and crack over time.