So, what'd you do with your firebrick residue?

[kebwi]

I've only cut the floor and I've got a nice collection of muddy residue already. I'm going to have a lot before this project is over. What useful application can I put it toward? I already have 50lbs of fireclay for mortar, so I don't really need it for that, and I don't need to level my floor because I used board instead of vermicrete.

There has just got to be something interesting I can do with it.

[Les]

Re: So, what'd you do with your firebrick residue?

I let mine dry out, then through it into the trash - not very interesting but it got rid of the crap.

Les...

[james]

Re: So, what'd you do with your firebrick residue?

I cut a large number of travertine tiles for a bathroom floor once, and ended up with this beautiful marble powder. I wanted to do something artistic with it, but I couldn't come up with anything.

Though it comes full circle. I later found out that Venetian Plaster is made with lime and ground marble -- and we used that for new house.

I'm not sure what to do with firebrick clay/powder. May you could mail it to a new builder for DIY mortar.

James

[timo]

Re: So, what'd you do with your firebrick residue?

I was able to recycle it into fill for my patio. Did the same with bricks parts and anything other mortar bits. Does make huge mess until I covered the fill with sand and then the flagstone.

[jmhepworth]

Re: So, what'd you do with your firebrick residue?

I kept mine in a 5 gallon orange HD bucket. I expect to build another one of these some day, if not for myself, for one of my kids.

[Tscarborough]

Re: So, what'd you do with your firebrick residue?

Mix it back into whatever refractory mortar you are using as an extender.

[kebwi]

Re: So, what'd you do with your firebrick residue?

I'm making homebrew mortar. I don't see how adding it would be any different from fireclay, which I already have. The consistency is different (firebrick residue is much courser, or more to the point, fireclay is really fine, like talcum powder), but other than that, aren't they basically the same thing?

[Tscarborough]

Re: So, what'd you do with your firebrick residue?

No, they are not the same thing. If it is coarse I wouldn't use it. In lime mortars, for example, you can use brick dust to gauge the mortar, i.e. provide a faster initial set.

[david s]

Re: So, what'd you do with your firebrick residue?

The firecay is unfired while the brick dust has been fired. The fireclay will make a mud but the clay dust won't. Be careful the fired clay is damaging to the tiny hairs inside your lungs. Because it has been fired it cuts them rather than clogging them like mud. Use a mask.It's the same as never sanding biscuit fired pottery indoors or without a mask.

[ttriche]

Re: So, what'd you do with your firebrick residue?

One idea that's been mentioned is to put a layer of it on top of your dome (under your insulation layer) so that the fine dust sifts into any cracks that open up. That way you end up with a similar principle as mentioned in 'The Bread Builders' but with the much smaller particle size of your firebrick dust, it's more likely to fill any gaps and prevent outgassing from your wood.

That's what I've been using it for, at least. I still have a ton left over.