Dear Tim: I have a lovely brick patio that has mortar between the brick. After pressure-washing it this past weekend, I noticed several locations where the mortar has disintegrated. Most of the mortar ...

One of the most common questions people have when preparing to tuckpoint (replace deteriorated mortar between bricks) is how to make the new mortar look similar to the "sound" mortar already in the ...

You may not know this, but I received a bachelor of science degree in geology many moons ago. I was fascinated by the topic, and it helped me build houses and buildings that would not fail.

DEAR TIM: My 10-year-old house developed some cosmetic cracks in the mortar. I got some bids to have tuck-pointing work done and nearly gagged when I looked at the cost. I’m wondering about using a ...

Q: It appears I wasted some money five years ago. I had my brick building repointed with new mortar, and it has deteriorated quickly. Do you have any idea what caused that? The building is close to ...

Water, snow and ice erode both brick and mortar. Perhaps the most damaging of the three is ice. Water that soaks into the mortar between brick can and does freeze. Water expands as it freezes and this ...