Plenty of Westchester brick houses wear a coat of ivy, and owners are usually told it has to go. The truth is more useful. On sound brickwork ivy does little harm and some good. On worn joints it finds every weakness. What matters is what is underneath.
Research commissioned by English Heritage and carried out at the University of Oxford found that ivy acts as a thermal blanket on a wall, warming it by an average of 15 percent in cold weather and cooling it by 36 percent in hot weather. The same work found that where a wall is already damaged, ivy quickly works its way into the cracks and holes.
As brickwork contractors in Westchester we look under the ivy before recommending anything. Historic England notes that ivy’s grip is only on the surface of sound masonry, but that it tends to follow eroded mortar joints. So the joints decide the answer. Sound ones can live with the ivy. Worn ones need repair, and the ivy has to come off carefully first.
Where ivy is doing harm, it shows up in one of three ways.
Ivy growing in lines that follow the mortar, rather than spreading across the face, usually means the joints beneath have eroded. On a Westchester house those joints are renewed by brick pointing once the ivy is carefully cleared.
Where stems have worked into gaps and grown thicker, individual bricks can be forced out of line or cracked. On a Westchester wall those units come out and go back in properly through brick replacement.
Ivy’s attachment pads stay on the brick long after the plant is gone and leave a patterned stain. Cleaning them off a Westchester wall without scarring the face takes a gentle form of brick pressure washing.
With or without ivy on the wall, the work falls into one of these.
Small areas of ivy are eased away at several points on each Westchester elevation so the joints behind can be seen. The decision to keep, trim or remove waits until we know what the plant is growing on.
Ivy tends to follow eroded mortar, so the thickest stems are the best guide to where the joints are worst. That tells us whether the problem is local or runs across the whole Westchester wall.
Sound Westchester brick can keep its ivy, trimmed clear of windows, gutters and the roof. Where the joints need work, the ivy comes off in sections by hand rather than being torn away, so it does not take weak mortar with it.
What an owner can expect from a brick contractor in Westchester who looks before cutting.
The usual advice is to rip the ivy off and repoint, and on many houses the first half of that does more harm than the plant ever did. Torn stems take loose mortar with them and leave the brick stained for years. Where the joints underneath are sound, the ivy is shielding the wall from temperature swings, and removing it gains nothing. Where they are worn, the joints are the real problem and the ivy is only the evidence. On a Westchester brick house, look under the ivy first, repair what needs repairing, and let the rest stay green.
Brick houses, many of them wearing ivy, run through Bronxville, Scarsdale, Larchmont, Rye and New Rochelle and up through the county beyond White Plains.
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Not if the brick and joints are sound. Historic England notes that ivy’s grip stays on the surface of sound masonry, and research for English Heritage found it shields walls from temperature swings. Where joints are already worn, ivy works into the gaps. On a Westchester house the joints decide.
Only if the joints underneath need work, or the ivy is reaching windows, gutters or the roof. On sound Westchester brick it can stay and be trimmed. Where the mortar is eroded, the ivy should come off carefully so the joints can be repaired, rather than being left to exploit them.
Carefully, in sections, by hand. Tearing it away pulls loose mortar out and leaves the brick marked. Historic England also advises against cutting ivy at the base and leaving it to die, since that can cause problems higher up. On a Westchester wall, removal should be planned with the joint repair.
Because ivy attaches with small pads that stay on the surface after the plant is removed. They leave a patterned stain across the brick. Cleaning them off needs a gentle method, since anything harsh enough to strip them quickly can scar the face of older Westchester brick.
It can regrow, but sound joints give it very little to work into. Ivy tends to follow eroded mortar, so freshly repaired joints on a Westchester house are far less vulnerable. Keeping new growth trimmed back from windows, gutters and the roof is usually all that is needed.
