It’s not often that you might think about maintenance for your home’s exterior masonry, but it’s vitally important. Regular masonry maintenance will keep your home looking its best while preventing potential problems, or at least stopping them before they turn into expensive masonry repairs.
Check out these five tips that can help you take care of the exterior masonry on your home.
Tip #1: The Importance of a Sealant
Water damage is always a major concern where exterior masonry is involved, but it may not be in the way you think about it. Stagnant water or continuous rains can erode natural stone and brickworks to create mortar joint cracks over time, but the real issue that can cause the most damage to your masonry is the freezing and thawing cycles over the winter months.
Tip #2: Regular Inspections
Take the time to check your home’s masonry at regular intervals, looking for cracks, holes, crystal-like powder, mold, rust stains, bulging, and spalling. If you find any of these on your home, call for masonry and tuckpointing contractors right away.
Tip #3: Keep it Clean
Cleaning your brickwork is very simple. It usually only requires the use of a pressure washer with the right cleanser that can handle common debris. For those tougher spots, scrubbing with a brush can do the trick.
Tip #4: Patch Mortar
When you inspect your masonry, you’ll be able to find those spots in your mortar joints between the bricks that might benefit from patching up before you go ahead and start cleaning. Check for cracks or holes, and where you find loose mortar, simply chisel it out. Brush away any debris and patch up the damage with a new mortar mix.
Make sure these mortar repairs are done at least one week before you clean and seal so that it has plenty of time to cure.
Tip #5: If Your Not Sure, Leave it to the Masonry Professionals
Many people try DIY projects that may look simple, only to make problems worse. So if you can’t be sure of what to do or which chemical solutions you need, speak with professional masonry contractors. Doing it right the first time, at an already affordable rate offered by masonry repair experts, can save you more money in the long run.