How to get thinset and cemented bricks off a concrete floor
Thinset and mortar bond aggressively to concrete, making masonry cleanup grueling physical work. Without the right technique or a proper scraper, trying to chip them away by hand leaves behind hardened residue that ruins new flooring installations.
What people tried
Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.
- 1Using a small sledgehammer to tap along the bricks
- 2Using a cold chisel and a large hammer on the mortar
- 3Hiring a plumber
- 4Waiting for the contractors to potentially return and fix the mess
- 5Trying to wash it off with a hose on a jet setting
In their words
Unedited, grouped by where they were said, most upvoted first within each place, each linked to the thread it came from.
r/HomeImprovement2 people · September 2026
“We inherited this from the previous owner: It is a few bricks cemented to the floor.”source ↗
alositos · r/HomeImprovement · 8 upvotes
Where this came up
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