Tuckpointing

Chimney with Tuckpointing

Your masonry chimney is exposed to rain, snow, and ice as well as internal factors that cause deterioration of your masonry chimney over time. You may notice that the mortar joints between the brick or stone of your chimney are starting to deteriorate, flake off, discolor, or are crumbling - a sure sign that it is time to have your masonry chimney serviced before further deterioration can occur. 

Tuckpointing of the chimney removes the defective portion of mortar from between the brick or stone, and replaces it with new mortar. This strengthens the chimney structure and can help reduce the risk of additional damage caused by water intrusion into the home, or prevent the chimney from falling apart. Our crews work to find the best possible mortar match to your existing chimney, and will often recommend waterproofing after tuckpointing is performed to help reduce the impact exterior moisture has on the masonry chimney. It is important not to delay these routine repairs to avoid a larger, more costly masonry issue. 

What To Expect: 

Our crew will set up the work area, setting any safety/accessibility equipment required to perform your tuckpointing work. Once set, they will begin to clear the necessary joints of loose and deteriorated mortar and begin to grind out joints as needed. They will then replace the mortar joints matching the existing mortar as close as possible. Mortar color, once applied, may vary slightly as sun and other elements can discolor the mortar over time causing the newly tuckpointed areas to stand out a bit. We always recommend to have a waterproofing agent applied to the masonry chimney after we complete our work to help protect it from water intrusion. 

Scheduling Your Tuckpointing: 

Exterior masonry repair is highly weather dependent. It is not something that can be completed during bouts of rainy weather, nor when overnight/daytime temperatures fall below freezing. Unfortunately, in our area this means we generally wrap up exterior masonry work late in the fall, and pick back up in spring when the weather breaks. 
Once your tuckpointing estimate is agreed upon, we will place you on our list for completion. Tuckpointing jobs can range from a few hours to a few days, most falling within the ability to be completed within one work day. If your scheduled day of service does fall on a date we receive rain, it will be rescheduled to our next available day/time.