Masonry restoration in Midland TX - sound joints and the real cause fixed

You're probably looking at mortar that turns to sand when you scrape it, a crack running through the joints, or a brick that wiggles. What moves the price is how much wall needs work, how deep the mortar has failed, whether bricks need brick repair before we repoint, whether old brick calls for slower hand work, and how high we have to reach. The schedule turns on that repair work and on any permit the city wants before we start. I'll give you a written estimate after I've seen the wall, with what's included spelled out, so you're not guessing.

Before we repoint anything, I figure out why the mortar failed, because new joints over an old problem don't last. Fresh mortar over a leak just gives the leak a nicer frame. If water's getting in or a brick has cracked, we fix that first. Then we clear the old mortar out to sound material, by hand on older brick where the brick deserves it, mix new mortar matched to your brick and the old joints, pack the joints full, tool them to match what's already there and clean up the face.

Restoration often turns up other work. A hearth or chimney breast that's past saving can be a good time for fireplace installation, and when the face of a wall is too far gone or you'd rather change its look, stone veneer installation puts a new face on a sound wall.

In Midland, permits go through the city's Development Services Department, and the city's list of work that needs a residential building permit includes repairs, along with new construction, additions and remodeling. Whether a given repointing job counts is the city's call, so we ask, and when a permit is needed we handle the paperwork and wait for it before we start. The city also says most construction projects need a licensed and bonded contractor registered with the city, and any work on a commercial building needs a commercial permit that only that kind of contractor can get, so tell us up front if your building is commercial. If you own a Recorded Texas Historic Landmark, you have to notify the Texas Historical Commission in writing at least 60 days before work that changes its historical or architectural integrity, and the commission reviews the exterior, so we plan that wait into the schedule.

What we see most on jobs around here is brick that's been patched before, usually with mortar smeared over the joints instead of packed into them. A smear like that is a bandage, not a repair, so we pick it out before anything new goes in, and we run into the same patchwork on jobs in Odessa and Big Spring.