Do-It-Yourself: Repointing Chimney Mortar

The Desire to Save Money With Do-It-Yourself Chimney Mortar Repointing – After staring at the deteriorating brick and mortar and worse a chimney listing to one side, you decide it’s now time to do something about one of the most procrastinated items on your “honey-do” list. Emboldened by inspiration from do-it-yourself shows on HGTV-Home and Garden Television and TLC-The Learning Channel, there’s the possibility that maybe you can save money by repointing the chimney mortar yourself. When you head to Home Depot, you’re confident you can get the job done right with the encouraging vote of confidence piped over the P.A. system “You can do it, we can help”. But the more likely scenario is you’ll be frustrated and left clueless about the perils of doing chimney mortar repointing yourself if the only assistance you get is from an hourly associate who can barely provide a micron of expertise and more likely only a nano-second’s worth of time to help you.

Deceptively Simple Instructions on How to Repoint or Tuckpoint Chimney Mortar – It takes years of skill and expertise for masons to apprentice and learn their trade. What makes you think you can figure things out on the fly? The spate of information readily available on the internet and television give the weekend home repair dabbler the illusion that anything is possible with a little research. The Do-It-Yourself Network-DIY supplements this impression that this project is a cinch in “House Call: Repointing Chimney Mortar” outlining what to do in three easy steps. eHow.com briefly outlines “How to Fix Crumbling Chimney Mortar” with little more than a page of instructions. Both sets of instructions do not even specifically mention the importance of checking to see if you require historic lime based mortar for your tuckpointing project.

Why You Should Hire Professionals to Repoint or Tuckpoint Your Chimney – At the store I used to work, I watched a crew of three masons work on a brick facade that was leaning precariously and as the building continued to settle, was in danger of potentially crumbling. It took these men a few days to get the job done right. And even among the crew there was a definite hierarchy of who was the skilled craftsman in charge of evenly applying the mortar. Together, they worked swiftly, confidently and with precision. One experienced brick mason I know stockpiles a cache of old historic bricks so that he’ll have an inventory to draw upon if he should need to replace a brick in the middle of a repointing job and wants to make sure the color matches. Besides ensuring the brick color matches, a good mason can also make sure the new mortar will match the color of the old mortar so there will not be a glaring contrast.

The Importance of Using Historic Mortar -“Avoid extensive, costly damage to a masonry chimney” cautions eHow “Maintain the mortar joints by tuck-pointing (repointing) them, and make sure the chimney crown remains sealed against water.” Yet, extensive, costly repairs will be necessary if the wrong type of mortar is used. If you or an inexperienced contractor use portland cement when a lime based mortar is more appropriate, it could cause the historic brick to deteriorate unnecessarily. For more information, see the article on “Historic Preservation using Traditional Lime Based Mortars.”

Save Now, Pay Later – Still not convinced? Think of it this way. You wouldn’t skimp on pulling teeth. You would spend the money to go to a dentist who has trained for years. Why shouldn’t it be the same when it comes to costly repairs on your house? If you do a slap dash job on repointing or tuckpointing your own mortar, you could cause irreparable damage to your chimney or worse permanent damage which affects your entire house. If you have a historic home, look for a mason or contractor which is familiar with historic mortars. Also, a good mason will also as part of the repointing and tuckpointing process investigate serious cracks or water damage to pinpoint and diagnose the root cause. For more information on historic preservation using traditional lime based mortars, click here.

Sources:

“House Call: Repointing Chimney Mortar“, Brad Staggs
“How to Fix Crumbling Chimney Mortar“, eHow Home & Garden Editor
“Historic Preservation Using Traditional Lime-Based Mortars“, April 16, 2008, Adrienne Jenkins, Associated Content