Five years ago I stained my concrete porch after sealing it. Time has caught up and the paint is peeling off. Now I'm planning to lay brick and would like to have advice/suggestion on how to go about it. Porch is 13' x 18'. How do I calculate amount of bricks for the given area? Where do I lay the first brick? Mixture of cement and sand? Cutting? Slope? Anymore questions I missed? Thanks!

 

Hi Friend,
We are about to do a similar job, and can share some
info with you.
1. Clean all the paint off the porch because mortar
will not adhere on paint.
2. For such a small job pre-packaged mortar would be
best.
3. Decide what brick you want to use, decide if you want
to lay it edge up or flat. Bricks come in different sizes.
4. There is a calculator that will tell you how many brick
you need. Go to ebricksolutions.com - left hand side of
screen, see "Estimator", give it your info and it will
calculate for you.
5. After you have purchased your bricks, do a dry layout
on your porch, this will tell you where you will need to place
cut bricks and what size they need to be. You can cut
3/8" dowels into small pieces to represent the mortar.
6. How to cut Brick - go to HGTV, Building and Remodeling,
Help Around the House: Episode ARH-159: toolbox: How to
cut a brick
7. How to butter a brick: same as 6 except Episode ARH202
Toolbox: how to butter a brick
8. Probably best to start near the house.
9. For cleaning up excess mortar, get a professional product
made for your brick and your mortar. Don't use muriatic acid.
10. Hope this helps!
8.