Brick Pointing on the Upper East Side, Manhattan

Local Conditions

Why Does Upper East Side Brick Need Repointing?

Many buildings here are very old. Townhouse fronts, pre war co ops and tenements have gone through a century or more of freeze and thaw. Mortar is the sacrificial part of a brick wall, and after enough winters it erodes, cracks and falls away, letting water into the wall.

Park and Fifth Avenue co ops are tall, so their upper walls face wind and rain with little shelter. Side street townhouses are lower but carry cornices, stoop walls and chimneys that hold water in different ways.

Past repair work adds a wrinkle. Walls that were patched with hard cement mortar decades ago now show cracked brick faces. A fix there starts with removing the wrong mortar before putting the right one in.

Because many blocks here are landmarked, the new mortar must also look right. Color, joint width and tooling profile all matter.

Cornices and stoop walls deserve special mention. A townhouse cornice sheds rain onto the wall below, so a failed joint near the top can darken the brick for several floors. Stoop cheek walls take splash from the sidewalk and salt in winter, and their joints tend to go first.

We look at those details on every visit, not only the main facade. A narrow strip of failing mortar at a window sill can send water straight into a plaster wall inside.