Cutting Stones?

[liquid1010]

I have some retaining wall blocks - but in order to finish the wall, I need to cut three of them in half. Any ideas as to how to do this?

The stone looks like this:

[adidas]

Best bet would be to rent a cutting saw from rogers rent all or alike....but if you only got 3 then it might not be worth it.

If it doesnt have to be perfect then take a chisel and a hammer...might come out decent, you never know!

[88CRX]

We used to break them for customers at Home Depot with a chisel and hammer. Just score the brick all the way around by lightly hitting the chisel, once it's scored all the way around give it a good wack and hope for the best. Sometimes it works... sometimes it doesn't.

Cutting them with a saw works 10x better, maybe find a landscape crew and ask them to cut them for you for $10-$20. Renting the saw isn't worth your time/money.

[bmeier]

I built a massive retaining wall for my parents last summer, there are a couple things you can do.

1) Rent a masonry saw from home depot, this thing is awesome and will cut a perfectly straight line through those bricks without chipping etc. (best tool, rental decent price, the saw is huge though you need a truck to carry it...)

2) If you have an angle grinder buy a diamond masonry blade, i had to cut a few stones with this before we rented the big saw and it works surprisingly well. You can make deep scores all over the brick and then it should break nicely when tapped with a chisel and hammer. (cheap, easy, works well)

3) chisel and hammer, this works in a bind but it is very tedious the stones chip and dont split where you want them to sometimes.. (cheap, pain in the ass)

make sure you have safety glasses when using any of these methods!

[thorin33]

Go to Fish Creek Rental. They can do it but I don't remember what they charge.

[nismodrifter]

For general reference incase anyone else is interested in knowing how to cut stone: We cut our stones using a Skil saw + masonry blade + water from a garden hose. As the cut is being made a second person holds the hose near the cutting path and allows a very light stream of water to keep the blade cool and also keep dust down. Cut around 80 large stones and their caps in this manner and it worked perfect. The cuts were clean, straight, and the only cost involved is the blades.

As for just cutting 3....maybe check out how much a small blade costs at Home Depot, if it's cheap get one and cut it in the method described above. Could also do it with a grinder like bmeier suggested.

[cancer man]

I used a hammer and chiesel make sure you wear safety glasses.