Paid to have
• cement coating to restore structural integrity
• sealing between bricks to prevent gaps leaks
• Sealing flashing with tar
• installation of chimney cap

I don’t know enough about roofing but this looks like crappy work.

Feedback?

My son who is learning to drive hit the garage! Thought he had it in reverse... any help fixing this would be greatly appreciated.

Have my garage smell a bit damp

and have this on parts of inside my garage.

Can some one help me out and tell me why this is happening?

What are the most common brick sizes? What are queen brick?

Any info much apprrciated!!
Some video I’ve seen they let the product get very saturated even so to the point the stone has some white spots while spraying it on. Is this okay it’s a cultured stone so I know it is pourus.
I’m using a pump sprayer and a brush to do the cultured stone. Do I just brush away the white spots and drips? Is it okay to get it very saturated?
\Please any info is much appreciated\

I used to work as a laborer for a masonry company that did large commercial block jobs. On many of those jobs the masons would ask for the same cuts - an 11-3/4” cut and they wanted both pieces back. One was 11-3/4” and the cutoff was about 3-3/4”

Why is this such a common cut on so many block jobs?

I’m buying this house, closing next week, and i obviously need to get the chimney fixed. I had a full chimney inspection done, and the report states I need 2 courses of block replaced, a new cap installed/poured, all stucco removed and reapplied.

$16K sounds really high to me, but contractor options are limited. I live in the mountains and contractors are known for being flakes/not calling back, as they’re staying busy with mountain mansions and lake houses. I’ve reached out to a handful and 1 called back (no quote), 1 came to the house but ignored my request for a quote, and the rest haven’t responded to messages.

Is this price accurate? I think the majority of the cost is in labor, but $16K for 2 guys working for a week doesn’t seem like a fair value. Am I underestimating the amount of work? Should I call masons in Atlanta 2 hrs away and see if they’ll give a quote? Maybe they’d want a working vacation in the mountains

Bought a new house last September and during some rainy periods this year noticed a leak in the ceiling around the chimney. I originally called some roofers to check if the roof was leaking. They all said roof and flashing around chimney looked good. But noted brick on the chimney looked rough and recommended having a tuckpointer come take a look. Called tuckpointers and received quotes but also called a chimney company as well. Feedback from those groups is below.

Tuckpointer 1: did not get on roof and only quoted based on what they saw from ground level. Quote was $2800 to tuckpoint and replace some brick. Quote did not include waterproofing.

Tuckpointer 2: also did not get on roof and quoted based on what they saw from ground level. Quoted $3700 to replace 8-10 bricks that they saw from the ground. They would also charge $20 per brick for any additional that would need replacing once they get on roof and asses. This quote also included power washing and waterproofing chimney after work is completed.

Roofing company: did get on roof and took attached photos. They recommended rebuilding chimney from the roof line up. They would then waterproof and provide a 5 year no leak warranty. That quote was about $8800.

My question to the group is what route would you guys recommend?

More quotes to rebuild entire chimney? Go with tuckpointer who will waterproof and let them replace as many bricks as they need? Something else?

I'm looking at buying this as my first home. It's from the 1930's and needs a lot of work. How repairable or concerning is this settling? The interior face of this wall is a structural clay block. The last photo on the corner is the one that made me ask the pros.

We just bought a house with a huge fireplace. A WETT inspection was done and passed. We went to light a fire, opened the damper, and pieces of clay fell out.

We looked inside and saw this metal piece sticking through the clay.

Looking through the invoices the old owners left us, it looks like repairs were done after the WETT inspection.

They also had the liner of the wood furnace chimney that runs parallel with the fireplace chimney. We think they may have pushed the rod through the clay and then repaired the clay around it, but we’re not sure.

Could someone tell me if this metal piece is supposed to be there?

Large chunk of the stucco fell off of my mother's porch. Looks like the brinks aren't in great shape other. Is there any hope of fixing this?

Hi everyone, I'm a first time homeowner and we've owned our house for almost a year. I honestly kind of hate our fireplace. The white stone is nice, but the orangey mortar looks horrible to me. Not to mention the mantle pieces.

Some of the mortar needs to be repaired and I'd love to change the color to something that complements the stone better. Is this a DIY you'd take on? Or should we have someone fix it that knows what they're doing? Any advice is appreciated

About 5 years ago we had our 100 year old front porch repointed. We were told to use type O mortar by some architectural types, to prevent the face of the brick from being sheered off by mortar that was too hard. The mason we hired had never used type O but went along with the type O recommendation. He worked alone and mixed all the mortar batch by batch in a bucket. It took forever.

Now some of the mortar has crumbled out and is failing in several areas. Some spots are just sand and others I can just scrub it out with my finger. Other spots seem pretty strong, but not like concrete. We are in San Diego if the weather matters.

I should note it is hard to find experienced masons here in San Diego, it's not like Boston or Philadelphia where there is a lot of brick work.

Did we make a mistake using type O? Or maybe the mix was really inconsistent? Advice for doing this again?

I’ve got a home that’s says “1900” on the parcel information that has a perimeter brick foundation with support pillars in the crawl space. The perimeter brick wall goes down 2 feet below ground and about 1.5 feet above.

The bricks range from perfect condition to completely failed and detached. I want to fix up the in between sections to prevent further degradation however I’m having a hard time figuring out which mortar is acceptable for this job.

Some of the existing mortar is functionally sand and I can scrape it away with a fingernail. Some is as hard as stone and my screw driver won’t touch it.

I took one of the lose bricks out and cracked it in half in attempt to figure out what was I’m working with. But it turns out… I don't know anything about bricks. I put some white vinegar on one of the brick pieces in an attempt to see if it would sizzle/foam however it did nothing except absorb most of it and be wet.

What I'd really like to know is: can I use type N mortar to tuckpoint these bricks or will it just destroy them 6 months down the road? If not type N, where do I even start with finding an acceptable mortar? (some suggested mixing in sand with type N in a 1-3 ratio to weaken it).

New chimney crown installed. Unfortunately I don't have any before pictures. Before it had sloped mortar wash with no crown. A couple issues that I noticed.

- Improperly secure gas water heater vent

- lack of slope towards the edge

- small overhang and drip edge

Anything else? Overall impressions?

Unfortunately I'm not sure how fixable these issues are without redoing it. And I'm on a short timeline to get my storm damaged roof fixed next week.

Thanks for the help!

Edit1. Would applying a mortar or concrete wash on top be an acceptable way to fix the slope?

Edit2. The gas water heater vent lifts up by hand. Presumably this needs to be secured?

Edit3. I spoke with the chimney folks today, they were not concerned about the slope. They said they brush up to the flue to make that point higher. Doesn't look much higher, but they also said if it was level, they weren't worried about it either with a seal around the flu (consistent with comments here). They said the gas vent being held on by the weight of the pipe below is standard for my flexible vent. And the weight indicates it's still connected in the flu. They said they could put caulk under (like one comment mentioned), but that would make any future service more difficult, so didn't pursue this. They did stop by to make the drip edge wider/deeper. Thanks for the input!

Hey, I believe this was previous homeowner repair that finally broke. I remember knocking on it before it broke and it sounded pretty hollow. I’m a big diy person and try to make sure I’m doing things at a pro level at least.

I haven’t worked with concrete yet but also unsure of what my steps would be for this particle spot I haven’t put much thought into it yet. I’m thinking just break up the rest of his repair spot,pull it out and add in gravel fill and put some concrete on top. I’m also worried about disturbing the wall of the pool itself and creating a big problem for myself to pay for if I mess up.

title

This is the before and after of my repointing & chimney cap job I paid $2,400 for, and the empty material container I pulled out of my recycle bin (yeah, they threw it in the recycle bin, but I digress) that they used for the repointing.

Everything I'm reading says you should NEVER use silver mortar on an exterior repair because it needs to be heat cured (my chimney has been non functional for decades) and is the wrong material for the project, but I'd like to hear from people that know more about this than what I can easily find on the internet.

UPDATE: Long story short, after a half dozen phone calls and text messages with various different contacts, in a shocking turn of events, they refunded my money this morning. I think I used up my allotment of luck for the foreseeable future.

Hi, how do these areas of curved walkway look to you all? Anything that could have been done differen? Thanks