Crumbling or gapped joints between your bricks? We cut out the worn mortar and repoint with a mix that protects the brick.
Tuckpointing, or repointing as most masons call it, means cutting the worn mortar out of the joints in your brick and packing in fresh mortar, and for an Escondido brick home it's one of the most lasting ways to keep water out of the wall.
Most people call me after noticing sandy mortar or a crack along the edge of a brick, and the first thing they want to know is whether it's worth fixing. The price comes down to how much wall there is, how deep the joints have worn, how closely the new mortar has to match the old, and how tall the wall is, since a wall that needs scaffolding costs more per square foot than one we can reach from the ground. The schedule mostly turns on whether a drainage problem or a broken brick needs fixing first, and whether your house needs a permit or a historic review before we start. I walk the wall with you and put your number in writing, and if the whole house is showing its age, we can talk about masonry restoration instead.
When you call, I'm the one who comes out to look at your joints. I'm also on site running our crew while the work gets done, so the person who decided what your wall needs is the same one watching the mortar go in.
Before I started out on my own in Escondido in 2020, I spent years as another mason's right hand, running jobs and learning to read an old wall and match its mortar. Six years in, I'm still on the tools most days.
We're licensed and insured. That's worth asking any mason about before they set up against your house, because repointing means a crew working on ladders or scaffolding right along your walls, close to windows, plants and everything else you care about.
Plenty of people call just to ask whether their wall is worth fixing, and I'll tell you honestly, even when the answer is a small patch or nothing yet. I'd rather do the fix your wall needs than the one that's easiest to sell, and our work is satisfaction guaranteed.
We'll get back to you within one business day to set a time. I'll come out, walk the wall with you and put a free estimate in writing, and there's no pressure to book.
I won't guess whether your repointing job needs a building permit, so if the city's permit guideline leaves you unsure, the Building Division counter staff at the city can help you sort it out. If it does need one, we handle the application and meet the inspector when the time comes. Older homes need one more check. If your house is on Escondido's Historic Resource Inventory or Local Register of Historic Places, or sits in the Old Escondido Neighborhood, the city asks you to contact its Planning Division before starting work. Any change to the outside look of a designated property needs a Certificate of Appropriateness, which is the city's sign-off, and that goes for historical districts and the Downtown Specific Planning Area too, on side and rear walls, even when no building permit is needed. New mortar can change a wall's color and joint shape, so if your home might be historic, I'll ask you to check with the city before we put you on the schedule.
Most of the brick we see around Escondido is on older homes, chimneys, porch steps, planters and garden walls, and the call usually starts with one patch of joints that's gone soft rather than a whole wall coming apart. We do the same work in San Marcos, Vista and the other cities around Escondido, from Temecula and Murrieta down to Chula Vista.
Your brick needs repointing if the mortar has worn back more than 1/4 inch from the brick face, crumbles, has gaps, or shows hairline cracks or cracks between brick and mortar. You can look along the joints from the ground before you call. When I come out, I'll go over the whole wall with you and show you which joints are due.
Across the US, tuckpointing or repointing brick usually costs about $500 to $2,500 per 100 square feet, and that's the going rate for the work, not our price. Where your wall lands depends on its size, height and how worn the joints are, the things I covered up top. I'll put your own figure in writing after I've seen the wall.
Mortar joints typically last more than 25 years, while the bricks themselves may well last over 100. That's why repointing is normal upkeep for a brick house, since over a wall's life the joints usually get renewed while the bricks stay put.
In most cases, yes. The state lets someone without a contractor's license take on only small jobs under $1,000, and only when the work needs no permit and they have nobody working for them on the project. Any job where the mason brings a hired crew falls outside that, so it's fair to ask anyone you're considering about their license.
Photos of the worn joints, about how tall the wall is, and whether your house sits in a historic area are the three things that help me most. Height tells me whether we'll need scaffolding, and the historic question tells me whether the city needs to weigh in first. Call (760) 546-4075 or fill out the form above to get started.
