Should I try to build a brick mailbox ??

[Scottintexas]

A neighbor ran over our mailbox.



I called a contractor and he quoted $1,100. which the insurance company approved and said they'd be sending me a check to settle.

Once I heard the amount I thought about doing it myself because that could be a new chartplotter, JBP LT's or a new shotgun. I've got a lot of left over brick from the house being built sitting in the garage.

@Speedling I understand your a professional and you probably don't want to take work away from another professional.

Any tips or pointers? my neighbor rebuilt his a few years ago and it looks pretty good. I'll ask him for tips but don't want to lean on him for labor. I've watched a couple of youtube videos and grasp the concept.

I have a hard time with detail work. It's not that I don't focus but the small stuff just doesn't seem to come out right, ie. molding/trim, painting,

There's a greater than zero chance it could end up looking like this.

 

[mrmeaniemeateaterman]

Were they drunk or texting?

Looks like all your neigbhors have the same mailbox so might be better to have contractor do it if it has to match exactly. I'm guessing with the curves at the top of the other boxes they are cut. So you will need a saw for that. Laying bricks does have a learning curve and it's messy if you don't know what you're doing. If doing yourself, I would make a "dummy mailbox" in back yard for practice so you aren't learning on the thing that sits out front of your house. You can either tear it down or turn it into a bird house or something.
My 2 cents

 

[Bruce]

You could buy a bag of mortar mix and experiment with a few bricks to see how you do.

In my area brick labor rates start around $300 per thousand brick. I paid around twice that for the 32' high walls on my house.

I have friends who have paid a brick guy a few hundred in cash to brick in their mailboxes.

My mailbox is set on a column of concrete blocks which is bricked in. My memory is that the brick job was only a few hours.

 

[Zonie]

Were they drunk or texting?

Looks like all your neigbhors have the same mailbox so might be better to have contractor do it if it has to match exactly. I'm guessing with the curves at the top of the other boxes they are cut. So you will need a saw for that. Laying bricks does have a learning curve and it's messy if you don't know what you're doing. If doing yourself, I would make a "dummy mailbox" in back yard for practice so you aren't learning on the thing that sits out front of your house. You can either tear it down or turn it into a bird house or something.
My 2 cents

I agree. If it was our house my wife would make sure we got one that matched everyone else. I did find this on amazon however.

https://www.amazon.com/Curbside-Xpr...qid=1534360390&sr=8-19&keywords=brick+mailbox

 

[CraigAR]

Dig the dirt down about 10" pour in a small 2'x2' concrete pad with rebar sticking out, lay block and fit your mailbox inside and face it with brick pavers and add a concrete cap to the top. Facing with brick pavers is easier than laying brick.

 

[BigN8]

If it were me, I would scope out some masonry subs at the Home Depot or go talk to the subs laying brick in one of the new neighborhoods. Show them the pics and ask them how much they would charge to do it. Buy all the materials yourself and have the stuff ready for the guy so when he shows up he's set. Basically eliminate the middle man.

 

[OCMD]

My mailbox was crushed perhaps 5 times in 3 years, and I live on a one mile dead end street. Twice by drunk drivers (locked 'em both up). One after being awakened at 3 am by a crash then continuing one way down my dead end street, me jumping out to my cruiser just to see her flying back the other way when she realized there was no escape at the dead end and catching her a few miles away; the other disabled the car so that was easy. Ahh the good old days of locking up these POS's that think it is ok to drive drunk. But I digress. In any event, my mailbox will withstand a nuclear bomb now. If a car hits it, you should see the damage it caused because it isn't moving. Yep, totaled a car that hit it at about 30 mph, and it is still standing only thing I had to replace was the actual mailbox. The pole remains standing. Steel pipe buried deep. Surrounded by concrete and filled with concrete. Rebar support. Then a 6 by 6 frame placed around the steel pipe. Filled with concrete. Steel pipe filled with cement, encased in a 6 by 6 frame filled with concrete. It won't move. Bricks can be struck and destroyed and all that money wasted. Concrete, deep into a steel pipe deep into the ground, reinforced with more concrete, ain't going nowhere. I loved it when the last car struck it.

 

[Speedling]

1. As was noted by @mrmeaniemeateaterman (dude, what kinda name is that...? LOL) all the mailboxes appear to match. You may have an HOA issue of some sort there. Even if not HOA per se, it may be a construction type of deal that dictates what is allowed. I would look into this before you do anything.
2. The arch isn't horrid to lay and would need a saw very little actually the way they have it.
3. I wouldn't do this yourself.
4. Is the foundation still intact? If not, that's where you want to work if you haven't done brick before. I know Texas has a different frost line but up here, you need to go a minimum of 4 feet down. If you can use a shovel and dig down a bit, then pour some concrete up you're good. I would use 8" block criss crossed up in order to create the form, and also to give you a flat surface at ground level. Be sure the block is level on top, and then fill with concrete. 4 pieces of rebar through it is a good idea as well, and depending on how the mailbox is constructed you can possibly leave it up " or so if it has a block inside of the mailbox base. Judging by the debris it's just a hollow brick mailbox. I would prefer to see at least some block inside even if just 8" halves stacked.

@OCMD I know your mailbox isn't going anywhere, but in this lawsuit happy day we live in, I have heard more than once of people suing because the mailbox didn't "crumple" like a car front end.
They win.
https://www.masson.us/blog/ct-of-ap...-mailbox-and-sue-mailbox-owners-for-injuries/
Chances of that actually holding up is slim to none though.
I did similar with my last mailbox. It was 6 feet down with rebar down another 4 and solid rebar through to the top with 8" block criss crossed from bottom of footing to top of mailbox concreted solid. Brick around it and mortar slushed between.

 

[BigN8]

1. As was noted by @mrmeaniemeateaterman

@OCMD I know your mailbox isn't going anywhere, but in this lawsuit happy day we live in, I have heard more than once of people suing because the mailbox didn't "crumple" like a car front end.
They win.
https://www.masson.us/blog/ct-of-ap...-mailbox-and-sue-mailbox-owners-for-injuries/
Chances of that actually holding up is slim to none though.
I did similar with my last mailbox. It was 6 feet down with rebar down another 4 and solid rebar through to the top with 8" block criss crossed from bottom of footing to top of mailbox concreted solid. Brick around it and mortar slushed between.

When I read @OCMD post I thought the same thing.

 

[Zonie]

Hmmm... Would the same thing happen if they car hit a tree on your property?

 

[Bruce]

@Speedling, we do not have major frost concerns down here. Remember my parents home has been sitting on a rock masonry foundation since the fifties with no ground penetration at all.

My brick mailbox sits on a 2x4 formed slab. Likely 3” of concrete.

@Scottintexas, you have the brick. All it will cost to try is a few bags of mortar and a trowel. I would try to size the mailbox to use whole bricks rather than cutting . A bag of mortar is good for more than a hundred bricks. If you start and decide not to continue just clean the brick and call a pro. If you need to cut the bricks you can use a masonry blade on an angle grinder or circular saw.

 

[Scottintexas]

Thank you for everyone's advice,

The foundation is there along with one layer bricks so I'd just be copying what was there.

I ran it by my wife last night who took less than half a second to say "we're going to hire somebody for that" and having a non-boating, non-shooting spouse dangling a new chartplotter or shotgun didn't even make here blink.

We do have a lot of new construction so I may take nate's advice and just try to find a sub??

 

[Bruce]

Find a sub with two, maybe three hundred dollar bills in your pocket and some beer in the fridge.

I wish you were closer.

For context, I subbed this (20x30x6) block work out for $1,000 cash.

 

[OCMD]

This is what you get when you have non-lawyers speculating on the law. Especially in a negligence case where different states have vastly different laws as to compensability. I am a lawyer; I practice neg law in my state, and am well versed in what would occur if some careless driver left the road and struck my mailbox. Hence, the fortified mailbox. I got sick of fixing the ones where I couldn't catch (and hold accountable for damages) the careless and/or drunk morons that smashed my set up.

 

[JeffVans]

This is why I live in a place that you’d be shot for such atrocities!!! Hahahaha ... safe and sound.

 

[Scottintexas]

ended up paying $500. to a local mason to rebuild, he was 68 so it seemed worthwhile and my wife likes the way it looks, thanks for all the advice,