Tuckpoint information needed

[Karl Card]

I have gotten a letter from the code enforcement office and was told that I need to tuckpoint most of my brick and my chimneys. I knew this needed to be done anyway but figured it was one of those things that would be in depth or just difficult. What I am reading is that it is pretty easy and just time consuming. Anyway my house was built in 1939 and I am looking at either using quickrete S or N for this project. What I have read is that N will be softer but S should be used for load bearing situations. One person said that if you have the older red brick that is soft you should use N because S would be to much psi and would or could make the brick break apart or the face pop off. I am looking for feedback from those that know or have done this before. I will be doing this also on the inside of my basement and on the outside of the basement that is above ground.

I do appreciate feedback.

[Jason Roehl]

You're on the right track--with older brick, which you have, you need to use a softer mortar. Use the N and don't think twice about it. I think the difference is that it has more lime in it to make it softer.

Jason

[Brian Elfert]

I'm surprised the city can make you tuckpoint your brick. I'm not sure why it is any of their business.

I guess I shouldn't talk as the house I bought was about to be condemned by the city. I ended up tearing the house down and building a new one. It was about half the cost per foot to build new then to renovate the existing house. Even if I spent the money to repair the old house it would still be an old house underneath it all. The old house was plain jane and no architectural value.

[Karl Card]

I'm surprised the city can make you tuckpoint your brick. I'm not sure why it is any of their business.

I guess I shouldn't talk as the house I bought was about to be condemned by the city. I ended up tearing the house down and building a new one. It was about half the cost per foot to build new then to renovate the existing house. Even if I spent the money to repair the old house it would still be an old house underneath it all. The old house was plain jane and no architectural value.

I agree with you but the truth is they are right, yes it does bite them telling me to do it
but I think there are some politics involved also. I have quite a few neighbors who have dogs, these dogs bark all the time, well one of them threatened me that they had "friends" downtown", well I am assuming they have talked to those friends recently. That is okay though because what comes around goes around, just not fast enough though.

[Ken Garlock]

Karl, I would be temped to tell the city to take their letter, fold it with multiple points, and put where the sun doesn't shine or worse. This is clearly a case of the government putting their nose into something that is none of their business.

Are you working for the government, or is it working for you?

[Neal Clayton]

You're on the right track--with older brick, which you have, you need to use a softer mortar.

Jason

jason is absolutely right on this, there are even a few places you can send your old mortar to get a lab analysis to get the exactly correct proportions.

new mortar mixes are typically too hard, and not flexible enough. if you point it with new mortar that's too hard you can break bricks and destroy your home, literally (those old bricks are softer than new bricks too, it's not just the mortar). there are lots of bad examples of that around here. to be done correctly with the least damage, the old mortar really should be chiseled out by hand as well, not grinded out (which always results in some damage).

lime mortar also breathes, cement mortar doesn't nearly as much, so it's very possible that the design of the structure, if lime mortar was used, requires lime mortar to allow the wall to shed water. you can trap water if you put cement mortar on top of it. this is especially the case in an unfinished basement that was designed to collect and drain rain water away. mine is like that. all soft brick and lime mortar so that any water that gets under the house can simply run on/around/through the wall to get to the basement and drain away in a floor drain. if i were to compromise that design i would wind up with all sorts of problems from the water not being able to get out.

afaik lime mortar was used through the early 1900s but was replaced by portland cement/sand mortar toward the WW2 years. so you're kinda in a middle ground in building material changes relating to mortar with the age of your building. you really need to find out what's there before going any further and match that mix as closely as possible.

it's not a job for an inexperienced crew, if you're going to hire it out get someone who knows what they're doing for this one. if you don't know anyone personally, i would check with your local historic society for recommendations.