Mortar crumbling, cracked or worn back from the brick face? We cut out the bad joints and pack in new mortar that protects the brick.
Brick pointing, which you'll also hear called repointing or tuckpointing, means cutting the worn mortar out of the joints in a brick wall and packing in new mortar, so the bricks stay in the wall and the joints are sound again. We do it on brick homes, garden walls and older buildings across Brownsville.
Most people call because they've noticed sand piling up under a wall, or a joint they can scrape out with a car key. Sometimes that's a few bad spots and sometimes it's a whole side of the house, and I'd rather tell you a wall can wait than sell you joints that don't need doing. Before any work starts, we check what the city or county office for your property asks for on the job, and if a permit's needed we pull it and call for the inspections.
The price comes down to how many joints are failing, how deep the mortar's gone, how high the work runs and how old and soft the brick is, since older brick takes slower work. Matching an odd mortar color adds time too. The schedule mostly turns on the size of the wall and any review the city wants first, and after I look at it you get a written price for the work we talked about.
Here's who does what, from the first look at your wall to the last walk around it.
I come out, ask what you've been seeing and check how far the mortar's worn back and how soft the brick is, then you get a written price for the work we talked about. Ask me how I'd take the old mortar out and what I'd put back in, because repointing is its own skill, plenty of good masons aren't qualified for it, and you should judge any crew before you hire it.
I learned brick under an old-school mason who made me tear out any joint that wasn't right and lay it again, and I started this business in Brownsville in 2023. We're licensed and fully insured.
If you go ahead, we get the city or county side settled first, then our own crew does the work with me on site the whole way. When it's done, I walk the finished wall with you so you can point out anything you're not happy with.
We start by marking the joints that are actually failing and leave the sound ones alone. On older or softer brick we take the old mortar out by hand, which is slower but far easier on the brick edges than a grinder, because a grinder in the wrong hands chews up soft brick and those edges don't come back. Then we clean out the joints, pack the new mortar in, tool it to match the joints around it and brush the face clean.
Pointing sometimes turns up a bigger problem. Cracks that step up a wall through the joints can mean the ground under the house has moved, and if that's the cause, new mortar won't hold until we've looked at foundation repair. Loose or missing mortar up on a chimney gets the same careful hand work as part of our chimney repair.
Pointing is slow, careful work and it's noisy, so here's how it goes once we show up.
We cover plants and walkways below the work and put up scaffolding where the wall's too high for ladders. On a big wall the scaffold can stay up a while, because this isn't work we rush.
We take each joint back to solid mortar so the new mortar has something sound to grab. It's the loud part of the job, and it's the part that decides whether the repair lasts.
New mortar goes in a layer at a time, since one thick fill tends to slump and crack. We tool each joint once it's firm enough, so it sheds water and looks like the joints around it.
A white haze can show up on the brick in the first few months, and it usually weathers off on its own. If it hangs on, dry brushing with a stiff natural or nylon brush and then wet brushing is the safest way to clean it, and muriatic acid generally doesn't work on it.
Send a few photos of the worn joints, tell us how old the building is and whether it sits in the Historic District, or call (956) 505-5518. Expect a reply within one business day. I'll come out myself for a free on-site estimate, and you get a written price with no obligation to go ahead.
(956) 505-5518Your wall's due when you see any one of these: mortar worn back more than ¼ inch from the brick face, crumbling mortar, gaps, hairline cracks, or cracks between the brick and the mortar. It only takes one of them, so if you can see it, send us a photo or have me come take a look.
Mortar joints typically last more than 25 years, while the bricks themselves can go well past 100. How long yours hold up depends on how exposed the wall is and what mortar went in, so plan on repointing long before the brick ever needs replacing.
New mortar should be the same strength as the old mortar or softer, not stronger. Mortar that's too hard can damage the brick face in ways that can't be repaired, so we pick a mix no stronger than what's already in your wall.
The city's Building Permits and Inspections Division handles permits and plan review for remodeling and new construction. If your building is zoned historic in the Historic District, the city's historic board reviews changes to it too, and we check what applies to your job before we start.
If your building is zoned historic within the Historic District, the historic board issues Certificates of Appropriateness for full or partial changes to it, so tell us up front and we'll check what review the job needs before we start. The city's design guidelines say to repoint only joints that are failing, to cut them out carefully so the brick isn't damaged, and to match the historic mortar in material, strength, look, joint shape and size, which rules out ready-made gray cement mortar. It's the same idea as keeping new mortar no stronger than the old, carried a step further.
We're based in Brownsville and work across the Rio Grande Valley cities around it, including San Benito, Harlingen, Los Fresnos and Port Isabel, along with others nearby. Most pointing calls we get are worn joints on brick homes and garden walls, and each one gets the same hand work.
A clear picture and the year the building went up tell me before I arrive whether it's a hand job, so call (956) 505-5518 or use our contact form.
If you're not sure your joints are bad enough to bother with, call (956) 505-5518 and I'll tell you straight.
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