Recommendation for brick repair

Unfortunately, what colonial is saying is true about a lot of things today. People rip down and replace.

Here is the thing with mortar and i know this not from a bricklayer’s perspective (i am not a bricklayer) but from someone whose job it was to hire contractors to maintain the facade and rebuild failed parapet walls whose mortar joints had failed on a rather large building. there is a point at which bricks and mortar can be repointed and a point at which the joints inside are failing and the chimney has to be taken down and rebuilt.

The failure of the pointing which can be replaced usually occurs as something external. The mortar may still be present but has worn and i hope that is op’s situation. The failure of the structure to the point that it must be entirely rebuilt is something coming from above and inside the joints – water leaking in from above and coming down within the mortar joints such as with a parapet wall whose capstone joints have failed. That water goes in and dislodges bricks when it freezes.

I am seeing this on my chimney. I see a bit of mortar that looks as though it popped off as though something pushed it from behind. A chimney specialist will rightfully look at mine and say it must come down.

As soon as i can i am going to take a class in this and study it. I see a need here.

Steve
Brownstonehomeinspection.com

justinromeu26

in General Discussion 2 years and 3 months ago

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stickman | 2 years and 3 months ago

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Hi, I have a chimney where the mortar has receded and the brick needs repointing. The area is somewhat hard to reach. Does anyone have recommendations on a roofer or mason?

justinromeu26 | 2 years and 3 months ago

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i cannot give you the name of someone but i want to point out that we have maintained ours which has had cracked or missing mortar. we had someone point it in 2006 when we moved in and i had it done again about 4 years ago. Last year i noticed that more mortar had popped out. This tells me something else is going on. I had been checking my mortar cap on top to make sure that is sound because that cap helps keep water out of the brick work and that water can freeze in the winter and the ice displaces mortar and dislodges brick. Last year, my neighbor had a chimney person look at hers and when he was here i had him look at mine. He told me that he thought my problem was inside and that i should have an inspection done with a camera, down the flue. He stated to me that water can be going into a damaged flue and passing into the brick. His short answer was “put a cap on the chimney”.

I am a newly licensed home inspector and have been working on and maintaining buildings since 1980 and old buildings in this city since 1995. i bought the inspection camer a and as soon as i can i will inspect my flue. But i may not know what i am looking at (i admit this to people and it serves me well; 5 people will call me just because i admit i don’t know something). So i just checked, the home inspection organization i belong to offers chimney inspection classes and soon i will be able to advise people on these issues. The class is also about inspecting fire places and woodstoves.

The problem with chimney issues is, they seem to originate some place else, not where we see the issue. like all leaks (we do not realize it is a leak because we do not see a water stain like on an interior wall, but it is water getting in from behind pushing the mortar out).

In the meantime, you need someone who maintains chimneys, not roofs or brick. The people i hired were not specialists. they do not understand what they are looking at and even if they did, they would never pass on a quick buck by saying to me “you need to call someone who knows about chimneys”.

There is a post on here now about chimneys. it is probably a dozen or so posts down from this one. Some folks commented with chimney companies.

If anyone wishes to have the internal lining of their chimney inspected, check back with me in a few months. I will practice on my chimney first. btw, the visual equipment i own takes photos and i always give them to homeowners, so if we see something i am not sure of, we can pass them along to the pros to look at-

Steve
www.brownstonehomeinspection.com

cate | 2 years and 3 months ago

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Your best bet is to contact a chimney specialist, as Steve said. There are several recommendations on here.

colonialrevival | 2 years and 3 months ago

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A lot of chimney specialists will just demolish your existing chimney and rebuild it — an unfortunate side effect of a contractor economy that thrives on predictable, repeatable jobs done at scale.