How to know WHEN to repoint bricks?
I’ve seen a lot of posts from people asking for repointing recommendations, but my question is how do you know when you really need to repoint your bricks? (And I suppose I have the same question for how do you know when you have to redo the brownstone?) We’ve owned our brownstone for barely a…
I’ve seen a lot of posts from people asking for repointing recommendations, but my question is how do you know when you really need to repoint your bricks? (And I suppose I have the same question for how do you know when you have to redo the brownstone?) We’ve owned our brownstone for barely a year, but we’re noticing all the cracks and sloppy patching in the bricks in the back of the building. Since we had some guys doing our cement in front, we showed them our back to get an estimate– the guy showed us how if you swipe your finger between the bricks, lots of cement dust comes out. Also, he said that if we don’t do it soon, water will get inside the walls and eventually ruin the beams. Obviously, we don’t want that, but we’re a little hesitant to take such recommendations from the guy who’s angling to get the job… And yes, I’m sure we’ll need to do this soon, but how soon? Next week, next month, next year, two years, three years?
Thanks.
What I think is important to mention, is that old historic brick cannot stand to be repointed with cement and needs a sand and limestone mix instead. Old brick is softer than cement and hence will actually deteriorate if it has to expand and contract against the cement. I think the Old House Journal Website has several postings about this. Do a search.
Try these guys, we were happy with their work and their price was in the middle (Going back 2 years ago):
IEB General Contracting Corp.
718.204.2552
Ask for to speak with the dad, John, I think he’s semi-retired, but he’s the right guy for the job.
His son Ted has taken over the majority of the work and is just as good, but it’s delightful to work with the old man. They recently did some waterproofing task at my place (Not one leak after all that rain)
Hey Anon on June 9, at 12:50 who got the repointing done for $6500 for 4 floors… were you happy? who did the work?
How recent or rather NOT-RECENT should the rec’s be? That is, if you’re getting repointing done, presumably it takes a year or two (or more?) for the good to separate out from the less good (or bad) repointing-work…
(I’m the one who posted the original question about WHEN…Thanks for all your suggestions so far… I guess it’s time to repoint… )
🙂
To answer your inquiry anon 10:28: No I’m not, but I did stay at a Holiday Inn once (I think)
Make sure to ask questions about what kind of mortar will be used. Some of the modern mixes are too hard for older, softer brick.
Anon 07:52 is totally right.
Are you an engineer?
In case this is all sounding too gloomy, the good news is that at least repointing is nowhere near as expensive as refacing brownstone. Not that it’s cheap but we did the back of our house last fall — $6,500 for 4 floors.
I am the anon at 7:40pm,
Sorry about my spelling, I was typing fast. To add to the point 10:33 and 7:52 were making, good repointing is a fairly manual process. You want to get lots of recs and go inspect past work so you can see 1st hand the quality of the work. Also, get somebody with a good rep for returning phone calls and finishing the job.
And beware the lowball bid. The bids should be within a fairly tight band from the good guys.