Crumbling joints or a crack across your brick wall? We find what's causing it and repoint with mortar that suits your brick.
Brick repair in Escondido is mostly repointing, where we rake the worn mortar out from between your bricks and pack in fresh mortar, so the wall sheds water and holds together again.
Most people call when they see sand trickling out of the joints, a crack running across a wall or a damp patch that never dries, and plenty just want to know if it's worth fixing at all. The price mostly comes down to how many joints need work, how high up they sit, how soft the old brick is, since soft brick means slower hand work, and whether there's a water problem to sort out first. The schedule turns on whether the job needs a permit or a historic check with the city, and when I walk the wall with you, you get my estimate in writing. If the whole front of the house has worn down, masonry restoration may be the better fit.
I come out to every job myself, so the person who reads your wall and writes the estimate is the same one on site running our crew while the work gets done. Nothing gets lost between a salesman and the people doing the repointing.
Before I started out on my own in Escondido in 2020, I spent years as another mason's right hand, running their jobs and learning to read an old wall and match its mortar. I'm still on the tools most days, so I know how each mix behaves.
We're licensed and insured, so you're covered whether we're repointing a few joints by the back door or working off scaffolding across a two-story wall. Ask about it when I come out to walk the job, and I'll go over it with you.
Some walls need a full repoint and some just need a downspout moved and a few joints touched up, and I'll tell you which one yours is. Satisfaction guaranteed. If you'd like me to look at yours, call (760) 546-4075 or use the form.
Send a few photos of the worn joints or cracks, anything you noticed scraping a joint with a key, and whether your home is on the Local Register or in the Old Escondido Neighborhood. We'll get back to you within one business day, and then I come out, walk the wall with you and put a free estimate in writing, with no pressure to book.
In Escondido, building permits come from the city's Building Division, which takes plans only in electronic form. Whether a particular brick repair needs a permit is a question for the Building Division, and if yours does, we handle the application with the city or county and meet the inspector when the time comes.
Older homes need one more check. The city's design rules for historic resources cover every Local Register structure in Escondido and every structure in the Old Escondido Neighborhood, and the Old Escondido Historic District has its own zoning rules on top of that, so if your home might be historic, I'll ask you to check with the city before we schedule anything. Those are also the walls where the mortar mix and the way old joints come out matter most, which the questions below cover. Beyond Escondido, we work in the cities around it, from Temecula and Murrieta down to Chula Vista and plenty of places past our city pages, and most of those calls are tired joints on older brick homes, garden walls and planters.
Repointing is removing worn mortar from the joints of a brick wall and replacing it with new mortar. You'll also hear it called brick pointing or tuckpointing, and on most brick repairs it's the heart of the job.
The price depends on your wall, so the honest number comes after I've walked it and written you an estimate. A few joints by a downspout cost far less than repointing a whole side, and scaffolding, slow hand work on soft brick or a drainage fix first all push it up.
Preservation guidance for historic brick generally advises against masonry cement, because it usually contains no lime and makes a high-strength mortar that can damage older masonry. One pricing guide adds that mortar too hard for the brick can cause damage within 5 to 10 years, so ask any mason which mix they plan to use. I'll tell you mine and why before we start.
On historic brick, hand chisels and mash hammers take more labor but in most cases carry the least risk of damage and give the best result, according to preservation guidance. Power saws and grinders are the most common tools, and in unskilled hands they can wreck soft brick, so ask how a mason plans to take the joints out.
Repointing with correctly specified mortar lasts 25 to 50 years, according to one pricing guide, and how long it holds depends on the mortar type. The same guide says south and west facing walls wear faster from sun and rain, so those sides may need attention sooner. A white bloom sometimes shows up in the first few months after repointing and usually weathers away on its own.
A hairline crack usually isn't serious, according to Escondido's guidelines for historic homes, which list settling, water working under the wall and earthquakes as causes. For a wider crack, draw a straight line across it and watch it for two to three weeks, and if the line splits, call a contractor, engineer or architect. Scraping a joint with a key is another quick test, since mortar that scars easily may need repair.
Under California's minor work exemption, someone without a contractor's license can take a job only up to $1,000, and only when it needs no permit and they employ no one. Anything bigger, or anything that needs a permit, calls for a licensed contractor.
Most of the waiting happens before we start, because if the job needs a permit, plan review takes about 30 calendar days for each review cycle once the city has a complete set of documents. A historic check with the city or a crack you're watching can add time too, and once we're on site the work goes as fast as the brick allows.
