Ricochet Construction is a Dallas-area leader in all forms of brick work, including tuck pointing and mortar repair. We are highly experienced doing this form of exterior wall repair work for multi-family rental properties, large apartment communities, and condominiums. We can do tuck pointing and mortar repair for any size multi-family community, often for very large apartment and condominium communities that host well over 1,000+ rental units.

In the following article, we will briefly cover the major issues that often come up when dealing with tuck pointing work.

Mortar -- the material that sits between bricks and hold them in place -- can crumble and fall into disrepair over time, sometimes resulting in severe damage to exterior walls and chimneys. Tuck pointing -- or cleaning out and remortaring any failing areas between bricks -- is a common way of repairing mortar issues, hopefully before any extensive damage happens to the bricks or structures themselves.

There are specific steps to any tuck pointing mortar repair. It begins with grinding out the existing and failing mortar, usually with a diamond blade on an angle grinder. Larger jobs may require several or even many blades, but small repairs can usually be done with fewer or even a single blade.

There are other specialty tools which may be necessary to remove old mortar. These can include a tuck pointer and a brick trowel, a masonry jointer or joint raker. You might also require a rotary hammer drill, depending on the hardness and accessibility of your mortared joints.

Tuck pointing generates clouds of dust, so breathing masks are a must.

You will also need to choose mortar mix that matches the color, hardness, and consistency of your existing mortar, so that the repairs will not stand out from the older work once finished.

Tuck pointing can be labor intensive, since it deals with grinding down very hard substances, and removing all pieces so that the new mortar can take the place of the failing materials. Some mortars are particular hard or dense, and the hammer drilling can take quite awhile to remove, especially at odd angles, or places that are hard to reach. In general, most brick repair work such as tuck pointing should be seen as a medium to longer-term project, and depending on the extent of damaged mortar, the repairs can take days or weeks to finish.

The time investment to do mortar repair is one of the main reasons most homeowners and generally all property owners choose to use professional crews to accomplish these jobs. While the work itself is not highly skilled -- generally anyone with the tools and the time can accomplish it with some basic knowledge of the process -- mortar work is time consuming, and can be very difficult work. Having multiple people working on different areas of a larger job, and having all the right tools at your disposal, means that most tuck pointing work should be done by professional contractors, such a Ricochet.

Tuck pointing is an excellent option for almost any brick repair, if that brick itself hasn’t been compromised, cracked, or broken. If the brick has undergone enough stress to break, either from the failing mortar, or a settling building, there may be a need to do a more extensive repair than just tuck pointing. A professional contractor can assess the extent of damage you are dealing with on your property, and advise you on whether a smaller process such as tuck pointing is viable, or whether you might need more extensive repairs to deal with the brick on the underlying foundations before you repair the mortar.

As mentioned earlier, in the big scheme of building repair, tuck pointing is not a high skill or high training type or work. It is, however, labor intensive, and needs to be done right in order to insure that the new mortar will last. While there are plenty of DIY people in the world with enough talent and experience to do their own tuck pointing, we at Ricochet believe this work truly benefits from using a contractor with all the right equipment, and wide range of experience on various brick homes and buildings. Especially with large scale jobs, as with apartment and condo communities in the Dallas metropolitan area, it is important that your brick work be done well, and that can only be accomplished by dedicated, experienced professionals who will stay until everything is done to the appropriate level.

At Ricochet, we are well-equipped and fully experienced in all forms of brick work, including tuck pointing. We have contracted with numerous owners and HOA’s on these kind of repairs, and can supply a long list of satisfied customers to give references as to the quality, timeliness, and professionalism of our work.

Contact us any time to find out more!