Many of us love rain, snow, and how the weather varies throughout the year. Our brick homes, however, aren’t big fans of changing weather, storms, and moisture. High levels of moisture and the shifting of the foundation can cause damage to the mortar, which will lead to moisture getting behind the breaks and damaging them. Additionally, if construction wasn’t done properly to begin with, then the risk for damage increases. That’s when brick repair becomes necessary.
New mortar applied during a repair job not matching the old pre-existing mortar in the rest of the structure is a huge issue that bothers a lot of people. The last thing we want is for a guest to walk into our homes and be able to tell that repairs were made to a particular segment. Even without the presence of guests, we don’t like to be reminded that our homes aren’t perfectly flawless.
Should You Do Brick Repair on Your Own?
We don’t recommend that you turn brick repair into a DIY project because you’ll find lots of difficulties along the way. Even if you have the skills to properly apply new mortar, selecting it won’t be as easy as you think. You’ll find dozens of colors of mortar in different shades of white, grey, black, and others. An expert mason might not be able to find a color that exactly matches with the rest of your home, but he’ll probably know how to match two different colors or shades in order to accomplish this. Of course, there’s no better place to look for masons with such experience than Masonry Dr. Sometimes certain things can be done to mortar in order to change its color. Adding lime to it for example can help change the color so that it blends in with surrounding older mortar. Masons have plenty of tricks up their sleeves.
Newly applied mortar will initially seem a little darker than the pre-existing mortar though. In a few weeks this darkness will fade and you won’t be able to tell the difference between the old and the new. Just give it some time. Once the mortar issue is resolved, the remaining brick repairs are easy and don’t take much time. The whole process will only take a couple of days for most jobs (provided that the damage isn’t extensive).
Finding bricks that match your old ones can be challenging if your home was built a long time ago and the bricks used back then are no longer available now. You’ll be able to acquire old bricks for architecture salvage companies or from people who hand make bricks according to your specifications. Your mason will find a way and will know how to proceed next.
There’s absolutely no reason your Texas home shouldn’t all match. Nobody wants patchy homes that look like they’ve been repaired lots of times. Hiring an experienced brick repair expert who knows what he is doing will ensure that not even you can tell that part of the wall behind the TV was repaired last month.
