The essential information is why your historic brick wall needs restoration in the first place. Restoring your masonry can be noticed by a homeowner's visual inspection of the damaged brick and surrounding areas or a thorough inspection from a historic brick preservation specialist. The leading cause of brick damage or deterioration is usually water. Water could become trapped in or behind your brick walls when installing or repairing a historic brick wall using incompatible materials. You are not allowing the trapped moisture to evaporate. Then, the water will find the path of least resistance, the brick.

Visual signs of damaged brick walls

Your brick or the mortar between the brick can show visual signs of spalling, cracking, eroding, peeling, becoming covered in a white substance called efflorescence, detachment, blistering, weathering, moss, biological soiling, plants growing in or around your brick wall, crumbling, delaminating, chipping, flaking, causing leaks, pitting, a leaning wall, holes, and or becoming discolored.

When ground settling occurs, it causes a visual sign of stress cracks that allow water to enter the settling brick cracks and cause future water damage. Water causes brick deterioration over time and needs restoration when your brick is not in its original appearance. Calling a historic masonry restoration specialist will provide the reasoning behind your brick wall damage and the solutions to restore your historic brick wall.

Ways to Restore Your Historic Brick Wall:

Restoring your historic brick is determined by the result of the damage and what caused it. Here are some ways to restore your brick wall after a thorough inspection.

1. Repointing:

Repointing your brick removes the deteriorated, cracked, or damaged mortar and replaces it with compatible, similar-looking, or matching mortar.

2. Replacing

Replacing is when you must remove a specific brick or an area of damaged bricks and reinstall similar/matching bricks. Then, while using a specific pointing technique, point the mortar joint so it has a similar/matching appearance to the rest of the historic brick wall.

3. Washing

There are many ways to clean historic brick, including but not limited to water washing, chemical cleaning, abrasive cleaning, paint removal cleaning, and poulticing. Your restoration washing solution depends on the existing surface damage and the specific cleaning materials needed to remove the surface damage.

4. Sealing

Sealing historic brick walls uses the correct water-repellent coating that keeps water from entering the surface but allows moisture to evaporate through the masonry.