When is the best time to do masonry repairs?

Otto's Masonry has been around and doing masonry repairs for over forty years in Toronto. Very often our clients will ask us if we can do masonry repairs in the winter. In most cases the answer is yes.

When it comes to temperature and brickwork there are ways around getting jobs done come freezing time. Very often we are called upon to tuckpoint and fix drafty brick/double brick walls. Cold houses (with no eligible explanation) often come down to air coming in under brick window sills, holes in tuckpointing on a side wall etc. This is an issue that often can't wait until the spring. We had to adapt to the Canadian winters and come up with solutions to be able to get work done.

There is a technical issue that can be encountered when trying to do tuckpointing in the winter and that is that mortar simply can't cure in below freezing temperaturs. BUT the solution is simple- we are able to tent and heat areas to allow proper drying.

So, if you are spending hundreds on your heating bill in one of these 100+ year old or even a newer home and think it might be a tuckpointing issue- give us a call and we will get your masonry repairs done fast and to a high quality standard.

Fireplaces and Indoor tuckpointing

In this day and age owning a home with character and quality seems to be second or third in line to "owning a home and paying a good price". With this we've seen a decline in quality in both the trades and lifetime of newer homes. It is common to see failing chimneys after only 20-30 years of their lifetime, brick window sills falling apart and in general- improperly done masonry.

Most of masonry work fails due to water maintenance. When water/ weather is allowed to sit on bricks which are limestone (and porous) they are bound to fail. For example: when you build a chimney- in order for this to last (as they do for hundreds of years in foreign countries and thousand year old buildings)- they need to be built completely straight and flush with not even a degree of variance. Anything less than this and you can count on your chimney to fail.

Having said that it is important-especially with indoor work (fireplaces, indoor brick wall repairs) etc to consider the reputation of the company and how long they have been around. Why? Because it is the character of your home and the quality of work put into it (as tested through time) that is going to add value to it. When Otto's takes on a fireplace (whether it be adding stone to the fireplace, re-pointing an old brick fireplace or tuckpointing a brick wall) we restore it to the way it should look- making sure to match the brick as close as possible to original. If you are looking to modernize your fireplace by adding stone to it- you can be sure that the work we do will last and will not only be of high quality but totally aesthetic.

If you are in Toronto and would like a quote on restoring your fireplace or tuckpointing an indoor wall, give us a call (416) 467-1717.