Contractor for exposing brick
Good morning all, I’m looking for recommendations for a contractor to remove plaster from one wall of our living room to expose the brick behind. Others in our building have done the same in their living rooms and their brick is in excellent condition. We don’t have the time to do it ourselves. Thanks much!…
Good morning all,
I’m looking for recommendations for a contractor to remove plaster from one wall of our living room to expose the brick behind. Others in our building have done the same in their living rooms and their brick is in excellent condition. We don’t have the time to do it ourselves. Thanks much! ~Julie
Hello:
My name is Polo. Good job and reasonable prised. Call me 718 506 2929.
How old is your building? If it is pre 1900 or so, this is really important–
I have a post about how to deal with the spalling (i.e., disintegrating) brick of my interior exposed brick walls, and I thought I’d mention this here just to forewarn you…
It is really important that you make sure whomever you hire does not use a cement-based mortar to repoint/repair the wall after the plaster is taken off. Most contractors do this. In fact, most people just repoint/repair their bricks with cement mortar and/or put non-breathable coatings on the walls to ward off the dust. Both of these things are very much the wrong thing to do if your building was build 100 years+ ago. For buildings that old, lime based mortar must be used. It is considered “sacrificial” mortar, which means it has a limited life (I think I read about 40-50 years) and will need to be repointed then. It is more porous that brick and is what allows the wall to breathe and evaporate off any moisture. If you use cement, the bricks are forced to “breathe,” which will cause them to start to disintegrate (spall). It gets messy, and it slowly just keeps going. A lot of people just thing it’s because the walls are simply old, but it shouldn’t happen if you use the lime-based mortar…
I learned this the hard way! And, btw, it is very hard to find a true mason who knows/follows this, and most contractors know nothing about it.
You can find tons of stuff on the web, esp professional masonry sites, if you search Spalling, Mortar, Lime, etc. Here’s a quick linkj: http://www.usheritage.com/faq.html
I think that that portion was 1600.00 they did a total renovation of my condo.
Chris
How much did it cost?
Hello,
I used K. Wright at 9175446791, he did a fantastic job. He was honest, and reasonably priced. If you want pictures of what they did for me email me at columbiastreetccl@gmail.com.
Good Luck
Brownstoner