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.

INDIANAPOLIS – Do you know what “repointing” bricks means? By definition, it consists of “removing a portion of the deteriorated mortar and redoing the joints with new mortar.” Doing that basically ...

the mortar in our brick walls are dusty and soft, somewhat crumbly. we want to leave some exposed brick in the house. i cant seem to find someone reasonable to do the pointing work – any ...

Last week, I fielded no fewer than five phone calls from homeowner with the same grim news. They found it nearly impossible to get quotes from contractors to do fairly simple repairs. Each caller’s ...

Dear James: The mortar between the wall bricks is crumbling in spots and looks bad. How can I repair it so that it does not look much different from the existing mortar joints? — Nick R. Dear Nick: It ...