Master Masonry

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Tips To Help You Protect Your Brick Home

With years of experience in repairing brick masonry on homes of virtually all ages, many times we wish we could have been there when the house was first being built.   Many mistakes made during construction are nearly irreversible.  Most home builders have not evaluated homes they and others have built years earlier and are unaware of trouble to come when the house is brand new.  This information is designed to help people evaluate, maintain and protect their brick home.

As mentioned on the page concerning older homes, all of Central Texas is in a predominate area for expansive clay soils.  These expansive soils act like a sponge. As they absorb water they swell and as they lose water they shrink. Soils tend to dry out (and shrink) during the summer and to absorb water (and swell) during the winter and spring.  As this occurs your house and foundation will move up and down. So, as long as the foundation movement is not great enough to damage the house and/or foundation, it is not a problem. 

   

Some notes about Texas slab foundations

Slab foundations in the Greater Central Texas Area are designed for some movement.  They are sometimes referred to as "floating slabs".  The use of rebar and post tension cables allows for minimal movement without causing serious damage to the foundation or the structure of the home.

Many times you will notice cracks along the corners of a home.  These are very common and are more cosmetic in nature and do not affect the performance of the foundation.  Common expansion and contraction of materials places undue stress at the corners of the home and the result is this minor chipping or cracking of the mortar coating over the foundation wall.

Best advice!  Get a Soaker Hose around you homes foundation and use it regularly to maintain a consistent water content around the perimeter of the foundation.

Archways are an area that keeps up busy.  Many builders continue to build what is called a segmental or eyebrow arch.  To learn the problems associated with these arches, see our page on Arch Repair.

Bay corners are very popular on many Texas homes and they do allow for a nice view when encompassing a dinning room.  On a more negative side, many of today's self taught, overnight masons build them incorrectly, allowing this poor construction to take away a considerable amount of strength from the corner as they incorporate straight vertical seams at the corner edges.  Many brick manufactures make angles brick for just this purpose but builders normally don't use them as it increases cost and borders on fussy brickwork for the masons.  If your hove design calls for bay corners, insist the brick are interlocking angled brick.  If your home has these already, inspect them regularly as they will usually develop vertical mortar cracks  with only the slightest structural shifting . We repair hundreds of these each year but this tuckpointing mortar repair is not a long-term permanent repair.  If the structure shifts again, the cracks will return.

 

 

Columns are common in many brick homes and if constructed correctly, will do just fine.  A stable foundation is the key ingredient and side forces applied to it from the home structure.  Narrow columns should never be built to support segmental archways. 

Expansion Joints are critical to a homes construction.  Walls longer than 30 feet should have an expansion seen to allow for yearly wall flex.  This is a very minor flex and is normal, especially here in Texas.  These straight vertical seams should be approximately 3/8" wide and should have close cell backer rod installed.  The outer seal should have 3/8" deep bead of urethane sealant.  We use only Sonneborn NP1 sealant which comes in 12 different colors to match your trim or mortar color.

Garage Spans with brick laid above it is another area that builders skimp on.  The 17 foot steel span the is over your garage cost a builder about $200 for a 1/4" thick angle iron.  To use a much stronger 1/2" thick angle iron would cost only an additional $100.  90 percent of homes have cracks in the brickwork at the center of this span due to the flex of a weak angle iron.  We have had to remove hundreds of brick above garages and completely rebuild the area costing the home owner thousands of dollars.  The vibration of many garage door openers cause mortar cracks at the outer edges as well.  Never allow a basketball goal to be mounted above your garage and never mount one to your brickwork.

Quoins (corner decorations) are very attractive, decorative and of course add to the cost of building the home.  On a more negative side, many of today's self taught, overnight masons build them incorrectly, allowing this poor construction to take away a considerable amount of strength from the corner as far fewer bricks are interlocked into each other.  Instead of having 25-30 bricks interlocked at the corner, you have only 6-10 with quoined corners.  Insist that your bricks are fully interlocked at the corners, (no vertical seams)

Brick & Stone Mix in a homes veneer can be very attractive. But as with quoined corners and bay corners, they two must be interlocked into each other as much as possible.  I see many homes that have a facing wall of stone and they simply have a straight vertical seam going up the wall.  Look for mortar cracks soon to follow.

Window Brickwork is a peeve of mine. Many builders don't realize how much water runs down a window and how important a water tight area windows must be.  As you have a 3' x 5' window at the upper area of a wall means that you obviously have no brick there.  This void in the wall serves to weakens the wall and will could be a vulnerable area for mortar cracks below the window.  This is why it's recommended that homes have expansion joint seams at the edge of windows when the wall is longer than 30'.

Wall Ties are the steel bands that anchor the brick wall to the wood studs in the wall.  Many homes are built so fast that the masons don't take the time install them.  With the ground flex here in Texas, these anchors are extremely critical.  

Weep Holes are an important element of a brick wall construction.  As the daily Sun's rays heat up the brick wall, condensation is built up on the inside of the wall and needs the ability to dry or the likely hood of mold growth and damage to the internal wood structure could result.  The weep holes on the bottom course of the brick wall every few feet allow air to be drawn in and vented out through the eve vents.  This hot air drawing up the walls allow them to dry daily. Weep holes have been a building code requirement since 1974 but many builders even today still fail to have the integrated into the brickwork. 

 

 

There are many more things than just what are listed here to be concerned with when it comes to keeping an eye on your brick home.  Armed with some of these tip you can perform your own evaluations and can spot concerns before they become expensive problems. 

 

Be sure to also see our testimonials from our satisfied customers.

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