So, I’ve been wanting to fix up this old fireplace in my house for a while now. The chimney was a bit of a mess, some bricks were loose, and others were just plain gone. I figured, “Why not try to fix it myself?” I mean, how hard could it be to find some chimney bricks for sale and slap them on there?
First thing I did was to go and look for bricks. Turns out, not all bricks are created equal. You’ve got your regular bricks, and then you’ve got these special chimney bricks. Who knew? I needed to find out how many I’d need. I read somewhere that there are like 530 bricks to a cubic meter, but that didn’t really help me much since my chimney isn’t a perfect cube. I just made a rough guess and hoped for the best.
I went to a couple of stores. One was this place called White Block Company in Spokane. They had all sorts of concrete stuff, including chimney blocks. These were pretty cool, big one-piece things that interlock. Sounded easy enough, but they were a bit pricey, and I wanted the real brick look, not these concrete blocks.
- Tried a big home improvement store too.
- They had something called “RUTLAND Fire Bricks.”
- Sounded fancy, meant for fireplaces and stoves.
But they were more for the inside of the fireplace, not the outside chimney part I was working on.
Then I stumbled upon these “Clay flue liners”. The guy at the store said they help with airflow and make the chimney safer. But again, not what I needed for the outside. I just wanted regular old bricks that could withstand the weather and not crumble after a few years.
I found some bricks that had this “Weathered Patina with Deep Terracotta tones.” They even had some black and white shades, which I thought would look nice and rustic. They were about 1/2 inch thick. Sounded about right for my chimney.
Found a Company That Makes Chimney Bricks
There’s this company, Continental Chimney, that apparently makes these high-quality radial chimney bricks. They had different sizes and colors. But I didn’t feel like ordering online and waiting for them to ship. I wanted to get this project done.
So, I ended up just getting some regular bricks from a local supplier. They weren’t specifically “chimney bricks,” but they were solid and looked like they could do the job. I figured, people have been building chimneys for centuries, they probably didn’t have all these specialized bricks back in the day.
Now, let me tell you, actually building or fixing a chimney stack is no joke. It’s not just about putting bricks on top of each other. There’s mortar involved, and you gotta make sure everything is level and secure. It’s tiring work, and I definitely underestimated the whole thing.
But, after a lot of sweat, and maybe a few choice words, I managed to get those bricks in place. It’s not perfect, but it’s a heck of a lot better than it was. And hey, I did it myself, which is pretty satisfying.
So, if you’re thinking about fixing up your chimney, just know it’s a bit more involved than just finding some chimney bricks for sale. But it’s doable, even if you’re just a regular person like me.
