Brick Repair near you

The best time to look is in spring, once the freeze–thaw season has left its mark. Check the walls from the ground and use binoculars for the upper storeys rather than climbing a ladder.

A mason starts by tracing the water or movement behind the damage. The mortar around each failed brick is then cut away and the brick broken out in pieces, taking care not to chip its neighbours or disturb the metal ties that hold veneer to the house. The opening is cleaned, the replacement is buttered with mortar and slid into place, and the joints are packed and tooled to the profile of the surrounding wall. Where many bricks in one area have failed, a section may have to be taken down and relaid instead.

Grinding and cutting release fine dust containing crystalline silica, which the Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety identifies as harmful to the lungs and a known cause of lung cancer, so expect dust control and respiratory protection, and keep nearby windows closed. Any repair above the ground floor calls for a crew with proper scaffolding or a lift and fall protection, not a homeowner on a ladder.

A replacement brick has to match in size, colour and texture, and it should behave like the original. Brick dimensions have changed over the decades and vary from one plant to another, and a wall's colour shifts as it weathers, so a new brick straight from a supplier often stands out. Masons look for salvaged bricks of the same era, borrow units from a hidden spot such as a wall behind a porch, or ask a supplier to find a close match. A brick with very different hardness or absorption can also weather differently from the ones around it.

Mortar is the other half of the match. It dries to a different shade than it shows when wet and keeps changing as it cures, so a careful mason mixes small test batches with different sands and pigments, lets them cure and compares them with the old joints before starting. Strength matters as much as colour: the new mortar shouldn't be harder than the brick it holds. The masonry page explains why older walls often call for lime-based mortar.

A crack that zigzags along the mortar joints like a staircase is the one most homeowners worry about, and with reason: it usually means part of the wall has moved. An old, fine crack that has stayed the same for years may only need repointing and a few new bricks. A crack that is growing, is wider at one end, runs through bricks as well as joints, or appears along with doors and windows that start to stick points to settlement or heaving below, and replacing bricks over a moving foundation only hides the problem for a while.

Before paying for cosmetic work, mark the ends of the crack with the date, photograph it with a ruler beside it and check it again through the seasons. If it keeps changing, have the foundation assessed first. The foundation cracks page covers what comes next, including when a structural engineer should take a look.

Most newer brick houses are wood-frame buildings with a single layer of brick veneer on the outside, held to the frame by metal ties. Behind the brick is an air space that acts as a drainage cavity: rain that soaks through runs down the back of the brick, meets flashing at the base of the wall and above openings, and leaves through weep holes, the small open joints or vents along the bottom course. Natural Resources Canada notes that brick veneer on a frame house usually has a 25 to 50 mm (1 to 2 in.) air space as part of the drainage plane, and says not to insulate this space.

Many older city homes have solid brick walls instead, two or more layers thick and bonded together. These walls handle water by absorbing it and drying out, which makes them more sensitive to the wrong mortar or coating. On either type, keep weep holes open: don't caulk or mortar them shut or bury them under soil and mulch, and ask the mason to clear any blocked by mortar droppings when bricks near the base are replaced.

Clear sealers are often sold as protection for brick, but brick needs to breathe. Some water always gets into a masonry wall, through cracks, joints and sills or from inside the house, and it has to be able to leave again as vapour. A coating that slows drying can hold moisture and salts just behind the surface, where frost pushes off the face of the brick: the very damage it was supposed to prevent. Film-forming coatings and paints not made for masonry are the biggest concern.

A sealer only makes sense as part of a diagnosis, after cracks, joints and leaks are fixed, and with a breathable product suited to that particular brick. Old, soft and solid brick walls are the riskiest to seal. Ask the mason why a sealer is needed and whether it can be tried on a small, hidden area first; the exterior waterproofing page covers masonry water repellents in more detail.

In Quebec, brick repair is masonry work under the RBQ's licence subclasses: 4.1 for masonry structures, or 4.2 for non-structural masonry, marble and ceramics. Look the contractor up in the RBQ registry before you sign.

Replacing a few bricks like for like rarely needs a permit, but rebuilding a wall or changing its appearance can, and heritage status adds a step. In Quebec, classified properties need authorization from the Ministry of Culture before they are repaired, while cited properties are controlled by municipalities. Elsewhere, ask your city whether your home is designated or in a heritage district before new bricks go in.