Tuckpointing, brick and chimney repair in Hoopeston

A brick house, or a frame house with a brick chimney and a brick foundation showing above the ground, has one job for its masonry: keep the weather out and stay standing. The brick does the heavy work. The mortar joints are what wear, and when they wear, water gets in and starts on the brick.

Most of the brick work Brian does comes back to that. Find where water is getting in, repair what it has damaged, and put the wall back in shape to shed water for a long time.

When mortar joints have gone soft, sunk back, cracked or fallen out, they need to be ground or raked out and filled with new mortar. In Illinois most people call that tuckpointing. It is the most common masonry repair on older houses, and done on time it is the least costly way to protect brick.

The new mortar has to suit the brick. On old soft brick that means a mortar softer than the brick itself, so the joints keep doing their job and the brick does not crack or flake.

Brick that has cracked through, lost its face to frost, or worked loose needs to come out and be replaced. Brick repair also covers step cracks running through a wall, bulges where brick has pulled away from what is behind it, and the bottom courses near the ground that have been soaked and frozen for years.

The repair is only half of it. Brian looks for what caused the damage, whether that is a leaking gutter, a downspout, hard mortar from an old repair or a foundation moving underneath, because fixing brick without fixing the reason means doing it again.

The chimney takes more weather than any other masonry on a house, and on older houses it is often the first thing to go. Loose brick near the top, open joints, flaking faces, white stains running down and water marks on the ceiling beside it are all signs it needs work.

Brian repairs chimney brick and mortar joints so the chimney sheds water again and stays solid through the winter.

People also ask about chimney rebuilds above the roof, chimney tops and caps, brick and block steps and stoops, and restoring old brick on older homes and buildings. Those pages are on this site too. Ask Brian about any of them for your house.

• Tuckpointing on houses, chimneys and foundations
• Cracked, flaking and loose brick replaced
• Step cracks and bulges repaired
• Chimney brick and joints repaired
• Chimney tops, steps and old brick: ask Brian

A lot of brick trouble starts below the brick. A step crack running up from a corner of the house, a wall that has started to lean, or a chimney pulling away from the side of the house often point to the foundation underneath. Because Brian does foundations as well as brick, he can look at both and tell you where the problem really starts, instead of patching the crack and sending you on your way.

East Central Illinois winters freeze and thaw over and over. Every time water that has soaked into brick or mortar freezes, it pushes. Over enough winters that breaks down joints and pops the faces off bricks. The places that stay wet longest, like chimney tops, the base of the walls and anywhere under a bad gutter, go first.

That is why brick repair here is about water as much as brick. Keep water out and off the masonry and it lasts. Let it in and it does not.

Send Brian a photo from far enough back to see the whole wall or chimney, and one up close of the worst part. Add your town. Text it to (217) 549-2230. Brian is based in Hoopeston.