Brick Hole Repair

[Joe Pelonio]

In the past I have covered holes in brick by just filling with clear silicone, then smoothing it with a putty knife full of brick dust made by drilling into a spare brick. I have a customer that is picky and wants to see a sample of how I plan to fill the holes after removing some lettering stud mounted into the brick wall. Anyone have a better way to do it?

[Mitchell Andrus]

There are concrete dyes available. A good mason's supply shop can help you out.

[Angus Hines]

I do the same thing Joe but use cement with the brick dust mixed in it. It seems to match better and give the same texture of the brick. After you smoth it over with the putty knife sort of stiple it with a brush of some sort and it should look wonderful.

[Joe Pelonio]

I hate to have to mix mortar for less than a dozen holes, but may have to. I'll buy a brick today and experiment. The holes are at about 10' up so shouldn't be that visible.

[Angus Hines]

At 10' up try the color matching caulks they have for pointing up old brick buildings.

It will look great from here.....LOL

[Tom Godley]

I do basically the same thing but I use bonding agent -- it comes in a plastic bottle and is normally sold in the same area that mortar/concrete is sold. It is a latex product and it is very easy to make a paste out of the dust - mortar has a tendency to change the color too much.

I have done a lot of work over the years fixing products from Haddonstone -- that is what they use.


For single drill holes I sometimes also use the silicone caulk method -- and it often works very well. I fill the hole first with clear silicone and then mix as little as possible of the clear caulk into the dust to hold it together and push this into the hole - If you use too much it can have a shine form the silicone.

Holes are a pain as they can really show up on some lighter smooth surfaces.

[Joe Pelonio]

I picked up a test brick ($0.39) and will experiment tomorrow, I'll try silicone and also an exterior spackle to see which works best. The job is Thursday.

[Joe Pelonio]

I see nothing wrong with the look of this. I drilled a hole through the bottom of a paper cup, so I could capture the dust. Then I applied a hunk of vinyl with a 1/4" hole punched as a mask, and squeezed in some clear silicone.
With the mask still on I applied the brick dust and smoothed it in, and removed the mask. This is the result.

[Paul Atkins]

I've got this plug cutter ----(end grain or flat?)