Well, I guess this will be the first post on our brick and stone repair section, or blog, on our website. I opted to do a blog as repair work is unique and its best to explain our process and challenges we as masons face when doing a repair job.
So on this project, the client called us because while trying to reverse their flat bed truck, she bumped into the corner brick wall of the garage with the tow hitch. Fortunately, the hit was not too strong and the damage was only felt by the brick veneer. However, as the pictures below can show, the hit did cause the garage lintel to raise up a bit and for the wall to push out.
One of the best things that happened in this scenario was that the hitch prevented the bumper from damaging the gutter and the electrical box, which would have made the project more tedious.
After our quote was approved, I began to find a match. Due to the age of the house, about 15 years, its nearly impossible to find the same brick. Even with newer construction, after about 2-3 years, bricks may get discontinued or new production of that brick may have different variation of colors than ones originally installed. Furthermore, due to high new construction demands, orders for smaller brick amounts may get pushed back weeks or even months in order to fulfill bigger orders for commercial and large residential builders.
After a bit of searching, we were able to locate a close match to the brick produced by ACME Brick in Malakoff, Tx. We went to multiple local brick yards first, but were not able to find anything close in color and texture. The client was pleased with the ACME Brick and we placed the order on two straps of bricks.
After a couple of weeks, between searching for the brick, reaching out to ACME and waiting for our order to be ready, the brick was finally ready for pick up. The Malakoff plant is a little more than an hour drive from where we are located from, which while a bit inconvenient for us, the drive there to pick up the order prevents more delays from having the delivery made by the manufacturer.
On repair day, we began by taking down the entire left section down and loading the brick onto the dump trailer. Many masons tend to clean the original brick for reuse, which may be the best choice if finding an adequate brick match is impossible. However, doing so is extremely time consuming to clean off the old mortar off the bricks and many tend to break in the process. We always prefer to use new bricks as it will always hold better with the new mortar and allows for a faster repair, saving our clients money.
When it comes to matching the mortar, it can be a headache. The colors of mortar most common are gray and white. Both are a combination of masonry cement and sand. However, there are multiple cement manufactures and each brand will give you a slightly different color. The sand used also has a major impact on color. The most common sand used is called buff sand or mason sand which is tan or slightly orange in color. There also sands that are peachy in color or completely white, but are not as commonly used as mason sand. Furthermore, each individual sand quarry will produce a slightly different color.
Another consideration when matching the mortar, is how the mortar has aged over time. Even if you used the same materials that were used to build the home originally, the newer mortar will be either darker or whiter depending on the color. Gray cement tends to fade a lighter color over time and white cement can become "dirty" due to dirt build up.
After inspecting around the house, we chose to use gray mortar and mix a little bit of white cement to lighten the color. The garage area gets direct sunlight throughout the day and the color was a noticeably lighter gray then other areas that did not get as much.
Once the install was complete, we let the mortar dry for one day. Then we come back and acid wash the brick, to clean any mortar stains on the brick, and do a final cleanup of the work area.
After going over the project with the client, she said it was hard to tell that was not the original wall and was happy with our results. Overall, this was a fun small project to tackle and we enjoyed helping our client with her problem.
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