Tuckpointing a Brick or Stone Wall

If you have an old crumbling brick or stone wall on your home it can become a real eye sore and take away from the value of your home. In this post we are going to talk about what you can do to tuckpoint your walls and to fix them up. Brick Tuckpointing or Stone Tuckpointing can be more difficult than it looks so if you are unsure you should hire an experiences contractor.



OK, lets get into the steps necessary to complete your project. The first thing you should do is take a sample of your existing mortar joints by busting a piece off with a hammer or chisel and then matching the color as close as possible down at your local mason supply store. Then after you have found the proper color, get your colorant, mortar, sand and get them on site so you are ready to go.



Now that your supplies are in order you need to start grinding, get a good powerful grinder with a 4 inch diamond wheel and grind all the joints as deep as you can without damaging surrounding brick, be sure to wear a dust mask and safety glasses during this process. After you have completed this task clean the wall really good with your brush, or if you have the time hose it down with water and continue the project the next day or a few hours later to give ample drying time.



Now you are ready to start tuckpointing your wall. Mix your mortar with appropiate color combination, mix should be firm and not to loose, if it looks like water then add some more dry mix to tighten it up, sand & mortar. Grab a sccop with your your trowel and smack your trowel down on your mortar board so mortar sticks to your trowel. Now use a 3/8 tuckpointer to stuff the mortar into the open joints, continue this process until you have filled a small area and then follow up by using your striking tool or rake to finish the joint. Let it dry for a little bit and then come back and brush the joints to remove excess debris, if you are are striking the joints then go over them one more time to remove brush marks out of joints. Repeat this process over and over till job is complete



If you are unsure of how to do the above job hire a contractor, you could actually make your walls look worse if you do not do any of the steps properly. Good Luck.

Video Source: Youtube