Mortar sinking back, crumbling or cracking between your bricks? We cut out the bad joints and refill them with mortar that suits your wall.
Tuckpointing, which most masons also call repointing, is the repair of worn mortar joints in brick. In Santa Barbara we do it by cutting out the bad mortar and packing in new, so water stays out and the wall holds together.
Most calls I get start with sandy mortar on a step, or a joint you can push a key into, usually on an older chimney or garden wall. It's slow handwork done joint by joint, so the price and the schedule mostly come down to how many joints need it and how hard the wall is to reach. I'll give you your own figure when I come out.
If the bricks themselves are cracked or loose, that's brick repair, and we can usually look at both on the same visit. California's contractor license board licenses masonry contractors for brick, block and stone wall work, and we're licensed and fully insured.
Call (805) 456-2871 or use the form, and tell us where the wall is and what the joints look like. We'll set a time for me to come out.
I walk the wall with you, check how deep the joints have worn and look for where water is getting at them. You get a price for the joints that need work, and I'll tell you plainly if some of them can wait.
If your job needs a permit, we handle the application and meet the inspector, and we tell you up front how the review fits the schedule. Then I work alongside our crew to cut out the bad mortar and pack in the new.
Before we pack up, we walk the finished wall with you and clean the mortar off the brick face. Your satisfaction, guaranteed.
New mortar should match the old mortar's strength or be a bit weaker, because mortar harder than the brick can make the brick face spall, or break away. On older walls that often points to lime mortar, which is soft and porous and moves little as temperatures change. Sand and cement change the color, so we try a small test patch somewhere out of sight first and you see the new beside the old.
Hand tools suit small patches, while power tools go faster on big walls but can chip the brick around the joints, so the tool depends on the wall. If a leaking downspout has been washing mortar out, it needs fixing along with the joints or the new mortar goes the same way. Sometimes the culprit is a walk or driveway pavers sending water toward the wall.
What our tuckpointing work covers:
Sound original joints are better than repointed ones, so if only some joints are worn, I'd redo those and leave the rest alone. Repointing the whole wall makes sense when the wear runs across most of it. If bricks are cracking or coming loose too, the joints aren't the whole story, and a section may need rebuilding instead. I'll show you which joints need work now and which can wait.
Beyond the number of joints, height matters, since a chimney or a second-story wall means ladders or staging and slower going. Lime mortar and color matching take more care than a standard mix. Deep or badly crumbled joints take longer to clean out than shallow wear. Fixing a downspout or drainage problem adds to the job but protects the new work. A short run of spot repairs costs less than a full wall.
I grew up on a farm where you fixed a cracked barn wall yourself, because nobody else was coming, and you fixed it so it stayed fixed. I learned masonry beside older masons and started C&D in Santa Barbara in 2017. I still come out to look at the job, and I work on it with our crew.
At your house we keep mortar off your plants and paving, and we clean up before we leave. I'll show you which joints are failing and why. If a section can hold off a while longer, I'll tell you that too, because I'd rather you wait than pay for work you don't need yet.
Photos, a rough size of the wall and any historic designation help me come out ready to price your tuckpointing.
Tell us where the wall is and how the joints look. We reply within one business day, and I come out for a free on-site estimate with no obligation.
Your joints need repointing when the mortar has worn back more than 1/4 inch from the brick face, crumbles, has holes in it or shows cracks. If only some joints look like that, those are usually the only ones that need work. I can check how deep the wear goes when I come out.
Tuckpointing or repointing brick across the US usually costs about $500 to $2,500 per 100 square feet of wall. That's a national figure, not our price, and where your wall lands depends on how many joints need work and how hard it is to reach. Your own number comes from the estimate.
Ask the city before work starts, because its Community Development Department keeps a list of work exempt from a building permit, and the city's building official can exempt other minor work. Work on that list may still be regulated by other city divisions, and counter staff at the Permit Center at 630 Garden St. answer questions. We check which office covers your address before we start.
Mortar joints typically last more than 25 years, depending on how exposed the wall is and what the mortar is made of, while the bricks can last well over 100 years. So a brick wall may need its joints redone from time to time over its life, and needing it now doesn't mean the wall is failing.
Most masons use the two words for the same job, cutting out worn mortar and packing in new. Tuckpointing also names an older finish where the joints match the brick color and a thin contrasting strip makes it look like a very fine joint. Because people mean both, we settle on the look you want before we start, and you can ask which meaning any quote uses.
If your house is a designated historic property, such as a city Landmark or Structure of Merit, the city's Mills Act program can lower your property taxes. In return you sign a 10-year contract with the city to restore, repair and preserve the property, and repointing failing joints is the kind of repair that contract asks for.
We're based in Santa Barbara and do tuckpointing in the cities around it, including Goleta and Montecito. Pick your area below, or call if yours isn't listed.
