Brick Pointing in South Harlem, Manhattan

Why Do Row House Brick Walls in South Harlem Lose Their Mortar?

Time and water. Row house mortar was soft by design, and after a hundred years of rain and freezing, it erodes. Joints recess, crumble and open. Water then travels into the wall, where it damages brick faces and the timber behind them.

South Harlem has brick row houses next to brownstones, as well as tenements and pre war apartment buildings. The brick ones show their mortar plainly, and open joints are easy to spot from the sidewalk.

Chimneys deserve a mention too. Row houses often have brick chimney stacks that stand exposed above the roof, and their joints open quickly. A stack with failed mortar can drop brick onto the roof or street, so we look at them during the visit and report what we see.

Parapets and cornices at the roofline take the worst of it. Window sills and the courses just above the stoop come next, because water collects and splashes there.

Signs it is time

Sandy mortar that rubs off on your finger, joints you can slide a key into, brick edges that flake and white salt stains. Any one of them is a reason to call.

How Is a Row House Repointed Without Damaging the Brick?

We remove the failed mortar to a firm depth with tools that do not chip the brick, brush out the joint, then fill in layers with mortar chosen to match the original. Joints are tooled to the old profile. Loose bricks are reset first.

Old brick is softer than modern brick, so the mortar must not be harder than the brick. If it is, the brick faces crack at the edge, and the damage looks worse than before.

Depth matters because a shallow skim will fall out. We cut back until sound mortar shows, then pack carefully in stages.

A small test panel lets you approve the color. Fresh mortar reads pale on day one and settles to a deeper tone within weeks.