Nombach Tuckpointing - Chicago's Tuckpointing Services at Nombach

At Nombach Home Exteriors in Blue Island, we offer Tuckpointing near Chicago, among our many other services. Our mortar mix that we use for tuckpointing is 3 parts sand to one part cement. Other major companies often use a 6/1 ratio, which has a life expectancy that is less than half of ours. Our tuckpointing professionals are here to help your masonry repairs with old world craftsmanship. Conveniently located near Chicago, Nombach is the place to go for tuckpointing services.

Brick masonry is held together by mortar filled joints. While the bricks themselves have an incredibly long lifespan, the mortar that holds everything together degrades on a fairly predictable basis, and will eventually require maintenance to keep the structure safe and sound. The maintenance process for the mortar is commonly called "Tuckpointing" (although a real bricklayer will tell you that there are actually several different types of repairs used, the general public has come to know them all under the "tuckpointing" name).

Whatever "type" of "tuckpointing" technique your bricklayer actually uses (and one maintenance job may use several different kinds of repairs), the basic process is similar enough that a single general description can provide you with a good idea of how the process works.

First, your bricklayer will examine every mortar joint on the house, searching for areas where the mortar has degraded and needs either repair or replacement. After all of the places that need to be repaired have been identified, you can expect to see two basic types of repairs being made to your home's brickwork: either small areas of mortar are reinforced with fresh mortar, or if necessary, you may see entire sections of brickwork being systematically taken apart so that all of the old mortar can be safely removed and be replaced by brand new mortar.

If your house has had only a little bit of surface degradation at small areas of mortar, your bricklayer will gently remove the degraded mortar by scraping it away with a special tool designed to fit into the small spaces in between the rows of bricks, and scrape away all of the old, weakened mortar (it will look a lot like sand when you see it falling at the side of the building). Once the bad mortar has been removed, and the underlying layer of good mortar is exposed, your bricklayer will mix up a batch of brand new mortar (adding any colorings that may be needed to match the original work), and this new mortar will be layered onto the exposed "good mortar", in the areas where the old mortar has been removed.

In older homes, or homes that have had less regular maintenance, there may be areas where entire sections of brickwork need to be completely taken out and rebuilt from scratch - fortunately, this is a rare occurrence. If this kind of major repair is necessary, your bricklayers will remove and replace only small areas at a time, over several days or possibly weeks - by going slow, the house can be safely be repaired without removing so much brickwork that the building would become unstable.

These larger repairs will reuse all of the original bricks, but there won't be any of the original mortar left when the job is done - not that anyone will be able to tell though - an expert bricklayer can make extensive repairs that are virtually indistinguishable from the original work - a testament to the many years spent apprenticing. As with all craftsmen, you should expect large tuckpointing jobs to cause some noise, falling debris (mostly old sandy mortar), and possibly interruptions in the normal flow of traffic. Your bricklayer will also remove all of the debris created by the repair process, and when the job is completed, nobody should be able to tell a repaired wall from the original!

Regardless of how extensive the repairs to your brickwork end up being, an expert bricklayer's repairs can be expected to last for many decades before you need to call your bricklayers back for more touchup work.

Nombach Home Exteriors located in Blue Island, Illinois, is a great place to go for all your home exterior needs. Nombach is conveniently located just south of Chicago to assist with all your contracting needs. We provide a wide range of services including tuckpointing, roofing, gutter guards, and so much more! Stop by our showroom in Blue Island or give us a call at 708-388-1090 to see what we can do for you!