Masonry restoration in Wilmington NC - mortar joints that let your brick dry out

Most people call us after they notice mortar that's gone sandy, crumbles when they rub it or sits back from the brick face, and they want to know how bad it really is. What moves the price is how many joints have to come out, how high and hard to reach they are and whether the wall needs cleaning first, and the schedule turns on those same things plus dry weather for the mortar to set and any historic review your street needs. If some of the bricks themselves are cracked or broken, that's brick repair, and I'll tell you which one you need when I walk the wall and write up your estimate.

Here's how it goes. I walk the wall with you and we mark the joints that are actually failing, so nobody's guessing once the crew shows up. If the brick needs cleaning, we start gentle, about what a garden hose puts out, and only go stronger if the dirt won't come off, because harsh pressure can chew up the brick face and the joints you're trying to save. Then our masons rake the bad mortar out to a clean, even depth, mix new mortar to suit what's already in your wall, pack it in tight so it bonds and tool the joints to match the old ones. When we're done we don't coat bare brick with paint or sealer, since a wall has to be able to dry out, and a wall that holds water isn't a good wall no matter how it looks on day one.

Restoration often sits right next to other projects on the same house. If the brick around your hearth is too far gone to repoint, or you'd rather have a new one altogether, we handle fireplace installation too. And if you've got a plain block wall or foundation face you'd rather dress up than restore, stone veneer installation puts a stone face on it.

New Hanover County's permits and inspections department issues building permits in Wilmington for alterations and remodeling, and its list doesn't name masonry restoration, so it's worth asking the county whether your job needs one. If your house sits in one of Wilmington's local historic districts or historic overlays, exterior alterations need a certificate of appropriateness from the city, which is how it keeps work in step with each district's historic character. The city's historic district design standards also say to leave unpainted masonry walls unpainted and unsealed, because paint or sealer could speed up their deterioration, and that lines up with how we already treat bare brick. We tell you which office handles your address and whether a historic review could come into your job, and we help you get the paperwork together before work starts.

We're based in Wilmington and work across the cities around it, including the ones on this site and plenty more. A lot of what we see is older brick with soft mortar that's been patched over the years with something harder, and we find the same thing on jobs in Leland and Wrightsboro, so every wall gets the same joint-by-joint look before we touch it.