Does your mortar need replacing?
While brick is a beautiful and durable material, it doesn’t always hold up the elements. As time passes, the mortar holding them together can start to weather away, allowing areas where water can seep in and cause issues. This is where tuckpointing comes in. It’s the process of tucking new mortar into the places where it has deteriorated. And while this may seem like a simple process, it takes quite a bit of skill and knowledge. Read on to see if your brick structure is in need of tuckpointing.
Does my brick need tuckpointing?
This is a relatively simple question to answer. You can usually tell by looking at the state of the mortar–is it cracked? Crumbling? Does it have holes in it? It may be time for a tuckpointing if this is the case. Other indicators are revealed once you wash the surface, ideally by power washing. You probably won’t need any tools besides your eyes to see if the mortar is failing on your bricks.
How often should I do this?
Not all the time–in fact, you could probably get away with doing it once every twenty years or so. You do have to take into account how the climate is where you live. In Maryland, we experience high levels of humidity and it rains relatively frequently. This means you may have to repair the mortar more often than you would in other areas. Really, if you look at your brick enough, you’ll see the problem before it causes real damage.
Why should I do tuckpointing in the first place?
Water can do serious damage to brick structures if left alone. It will seep into the cracks of the mortar and warp the brick from the inside out. You may also see some areas crumbling away and slumping–when there’s no support, the bricks can’t stay even. This is true even if the new mortar used in tuckpointing is stronger than the mortar before it. It can cause too much stress on the bricks, and be equally as harmful.
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When you hire PTG, you’ll work with Patrick Gillen from start to finish. This process begins with an initial site visit, a pre-construction meeting and setting expectations for the client and crew.
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