Mortar Joints Worn Back from the Face of the Brick

In a brick wall the mortar is supposed to wear out before the brick does. It is made softer on purpose, and over the years rain and freeze-thaw wash it out of the joints a little at a time. Once the joints are recessed and sandy, water gets into the wall instead of running off it.

Run a key along a few joints at eye level. Sound mortar is hard and barely scratches. Worn-out mortar crumbles into sand. Look for joints set back behind the face of the brick, open gaps between bricks, and sand piling up on the ledges below, most of all beside downspouts and under leaky gutters, where the most water hits the wall.

The fix is tuckpointing: grinding the worn mortar out to a set depth and packing in new mortar matched to the old. Put it off, and the water that gets behind the brick starts rusting the steel over windows and pushing bricks loose every time it freezes. Then the tuckpointing job becomes rebuilding a section of wall.

We fix this: Facade and Masonry Restoration