Crumbling mortar or sand collecting under your brick wall? We repoint the worn joints so the wall keeps water out again.
Brick pointing, which most people call repointing, means cleaning the worn mortar out from between your bricks and packing in fresh mortar so the wall keeps water out. At C&D Santa Barbara Concrete & Masonry, we repoint brick houses, garden walls and chimneys in Santa Barbara and the cities around it.
It usually starts with mortar that has sunk back from the face of the brick, or sand and grit collecting at the foot of the wall. Mortar joints typically last more than 25 years, while the brick can last well over a century, so on an older house the joints usually wear out first. Sound original joints do a better job than new ones, which is why I'd rather repoint only the ones that have failed.
The price depends on how many joints have failed, how deep they've worn and how high we have to work. The schedule depends on the same things, plus whether your job needs a permit. Chimneys are often where joints go first, and if yours needs more than new joints, we can take on the chimney repair during the same visit. The estimate gives you the figure for your own wall.
Call (805) 456-2871 or use the form, and tell us what you're seeing on the wall. We'll set a time for me to come out.
I check the joints with you, show you which ones have failed and which can wait, and talk through the right mortar for your brick. You get our price for the work and an explanation of what's driving it.
If you go ahead, we sort out any permit first, and then I work on the wall with our crew. We clean out the bad joints, refill them and clean up as we go.
Before we pack up, we walk the wall with you so you can see every joint we touched. If anything doesn't look right to you, that's the time to say so.
Wherever we can, we clean out the old mortar with hand chisels and hammers. It takes longer, but a power saw on thin joints almost always breaks the brick edges, and hand tools are the gentlest way to work on older brick. Once the joints are clear, we fill them and tool them to match the joints you're keeping.
The new mortar matters as much as the removal. It should be equal to or weaker than the old mortar in strength. A harder mix pushes the stress into the brick, and the faces start to spall, flaking and breaking off. On older brick, getting the mix right protects the wall you're paying to save.
What a repointing job includes:
If the bad mortar is in patches, say around a downspout or along the base, I'd repoint those joints and leave the sound ones alone, because tight original joints still do their job. When most of the joints across a wall have worn back, a full repoint makes more sense than chasing patches. If the bricks themselves are cracked, or cracks step across the wall, the joints aren't the whole story, so we'd look at foundation repair before filling them.
Repointing is slow hand labor. The biggest factors are how much wall needs work and how deep the old mortar has to come out. Thin joints take longer to clear by hand. Height matters too, since a chimney or a two-story wall means ladders or staging. Matching an old mortar's color and strength takes extra care, and so does planning around a permit or historic design standards. Patching a few spots costs less than redoing a full wall.
I started C&D Santa Barbara Concrete & Masonry in 2017, after learning the trade beside older masons. I still come out to look at your job myself, and I work on it with our crew. I'd rather tell you a few joints can wait than sell you a wall you don't need.
On the farm where I grew up, you fixed a cracked wall so it stayed fixed, and that's how we work here. We cover your plants and walkways against mortar and dust, and we leave the yard tidy at the end of each day. I'll explain each step before we take it.
Call, and I'll look over the joints myself and tell you which ones can wait. Your satisfaction, guaranteed.
Send photos of the worn joints, the wall's rough square footage and whether the house is a designated historic resource. We reply within one business day to book your free on-site estimate, no obligation.
Brick repointing across the US usually costs about $400 to $2,500 per 100 square feet of wall. That's a national range, not our price. Where your job lands depends on how many joints need work, how deep they've worn and how high we have to reach, and I'll give you your own figure when I come out to look at the wall.
Your joints need repointing when the mortar has worn back more than 1/4 inch from the brick face, or when it's crumbling or has hollow spots. Hairline cracks in the mortar and cracks opening between the brick and the mortar count too. A few bad joints don't mean the whole wall needs work, so I'll show you which ones need attention now and which can wait.
You may. The City of Santa Barbara generally requires a building permit to repair or alter buildings and structures, and the city's chief building official decides on a permit application whether minor work can be exempt. If your house is a designated historic resource, the city's historic resources ordinance also sets design review standards you'll need to plan around. Before work starts, we find out which office covers your address, handle any application and meet the inspector, and we tell you up front how the review time fits the schedule.
The best mortar for an older brick home is one no stronger than the mortar already in the wall, for the reason I gave above. Preservation guidance for historic buildings prefers lime mortars over Portland cement mortars, because lime lets water pass through more easily. On an older house, you can ask whether your job calls for a lab test of the old mortar, so the new mix copies the original as closely as possible.
That white bloom is called efflorescence. It occasionally shows up within the first few months after repointing and usually goes away with normal weathering. If it hangs on, the safest fix is dry brushing with a stiff natural or nylon brush, then wet brushing, not muriatic acid. If you see it on our work, I'll show you how to brush it off without acid.
Ask each mason how they'll remove the old mortar and what mix they'll put back, because those two choices decide whether your brick comes through undamaged. Be wary of an offer to skim thin mortar over the joints, called surface grouting. It can't stand in for repointing, and it isn't recommended on historic brick. California's licensing board defines a masonry contractor as one who installs baked clay products like brick and builds masonry walls, and we're licensed and fully insured.
We're based in Santa Barbara and repoint brick in Goleta, Montecito and the cities around them. Pick your area below, or call if yours isn't listed.
