Brickwork across New York City starts with one question. Has the wall failed at the mortar joints, in the bricks, or in the structure behind them? Each answer leads to different work, and most of the time it is the least serious of the three.
A brick wall is built to wear in one place first. The mortar joints are meant to be the sacrificial part, giving way slowly so the bricks do not have to. NPS Preservation Brief 2 describes joints in exactly those terms and expects good repointing to last at least 30 years, and preferably 50 to 100. Bricks can outlast several rounds of it.
As brickwork contractors in NYC we treat every call as triage before it is a quote. Worn joints on their own are routine brick restoration. Damage that has reached the bricks, or the wall behind them, is a different and larger job. Telling those apart first is what keeps an owner from paying for the wrong work.
Every brick problem sits in one of three layers, and the layer decides the work.
Mortar recessed, crumbling or missing, with the bricks themselves still whole. This is the part of a New York wall designed to wear, and renewing it is routine maintenance, covered on our brick pointing NYC page.
Faces that have come away, bricks cracked right through, or units working loose. Once damage has moved from the joints into the bricks, those units need attention individually, as set out on our brick replacement NYC page.
Bulging, cracks that run through bricks rather than around them, or a section that has visibly moved. That is no longer a surface problem, and the work becomes rebuilding, described on our brick repair and installation NYC page.
Once the failing layer is known, the work falls into one of these.
Joints, bricks and the wall behind them are checked one at a time, close enough to tell them apart. From the street, a recessed joint and a damaged brick face can look much the same on a New York elevation.
Which joints, which bricks and which areas, recorded wall by wall. The scope then follows the actual damage on the NYC building rather than a round figure for the whole thing.
If only the joints have gone, that is what gets priced. If the damage has reached the bricks or the wall behind them, we show where and why on the New York elevation before recommending the larger job.
What an owner can expect from a brick contractor in NYC who starts with triage.
Crumbling mortar alarms most owners, and it rarely should on its own. It is the wall doing what it was built to do, wearing at the joints so the bricks do not have to. The time to worry is when that wear has been left long enough to move into the bricks or the wall behind them, because from then on every stage costs more than the one before. Catching it while the problem is still in the joints is the cheapest brick restoration a New York building will ever get.
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A brickwork contractor finds and repairs failure in brick walls. That means renewing worn mortar joints, replacing damaged bricks, rebuilding sections that have moved, and restoring parapets and chimneys. On a New York building the first job is always working out which of those the wall actually needs.
Usually not on its own. Mortar joints are designed to wear before the bricks do, so crumbling joints are the wall working as intended. It becomes serious when the damage has spread into the bricks or the wall behind them, which a close look on an NYC elevation can confirm.
Look at where the damage stops. If the mortar is recessed or crumbling but every brick face is intact, it is a joint problem. If faces have come away, bricks are cracked through, or units are loose, the damage has reached the bricks and the work on a New York wall changes.
A long time if done well. NPS Preservation Brief 2 says good repointing should last at least 30 years, and preferably 50 to 100. Joints that fail much sooner on an NYC building usually point to the wrong mortar, poor workmanship, or water reaching the wall from somewhere else.
Rarely. Joints wear unevenly, most on exposed elevations and where water runs, so the scope should follow the damage. Marking which joints and bricks need work on each New York elevation usually shows that a large share of the wall can safely be left alone.
