If you live in the East End in Toronto, it is likely that your home is made of bricks. From bungalow to victorian - both alike often suffer from something called "spalling". When we say a brick is spalling, we mean: "break off in fragments (of ore, rock, or stone) ."
Most commonly customers will call us and tell us that they can see their chimney crumbling- or that little pieces of brick are showing up on their patio, side path or front yard (depending on where the chimney is located). The first thing to know is that this is always due to water somehow finding it's way into the brick- whether it is from behind (as is common with chimneys and water getting in under the cap) or water getting in through the mortar joints on a wall/ flush surface. Commonly the downspout attached to the wall is found to be leaking- or the soffit doesn't come out enough to protect the bricks from weather. It's important to identify what is damaging your bricks so that when the tuckpointing or repair is done- the situation doesn't reoccur. Properly done and professional masons are expert in identifying exactly where and how to detect where water is coming in. After forty years in Masonry- we've got it down pat.
Either way the scope of work is simple- remove any spalling bricks (the bricks can not be repaired), find a brick match as close as possible original to the home and tuckpoint in the new bricks. Now that the masonry issue is fixed- ensure your water maintenance problem is too.
So- if your home is in need of some quality masonry and tuckpointing, give Otto's Masonry a call and let us identify and fix your masonry issues for good.
