Our Process

How we repair spalled brick in Black Hammock

Taking out a failed brick without harming its neighbors

The Brick Industry Association describes breaking the damaged unit so it comes out more easily, then cutting and chiseling out the mortar around it without harming the neighboring brickwork. The goal is a clean opening with sound bricks on every side.

Our crew works by hand around the opening and checks the bricks next to it as they are exposed. If a neighbor turns out to be cracked or loose, we stop and show you before adding it to the job. Nothing is added to the count without your approval.

Cleaning the opening before the new brick goes in

Dust, old mortar and loose fragments left in the opening weaken the bond of the new brick. BIA Technical Note 46 calls for removing them with care and, where the brick is an outer wythe backed by an air space, for keeping debris out of that space so drainage is not blocked.

We clean each opening before setting the replacement. It takes a few extra minutes per brick, and it is the difference between a unit that stays put and one that works loose.

Why a sealer cannot close a crack

According to the brick industry's note on clear coatings, water repellents cannot prevent water from penetrating cracks wider than 0.02 inch. A crack through a brick or along a joint therefore stays a path for water whether or not the surface has been treated.

The fix for a cracked brick is replacing it, and the fix for a cracked joint is repointing. On a chimney in Black Hammock we show you which cracks run through the brick and which follow the mortar, because the two are repaired differently. Our specialists mark each crack on the estimate so you can see how it will be dealt with.

When the damage is in the flue

Brick pieces falling into the fireplace do not always come from the outside of the chimney. They can come from the inside walls, the smoke chamber or a damaged flue lining, which are separate repairs. Fragments of flue tile or smoke chamber material on the smoke shelf point inside, while pieces on the roof point outside.

Our specialists check where fragments are coming from before proposing work on your Black Hammock chimney. If the problem is inside the flue, we explain that repair on its own line, so brick replacement on the exterior is not mistaken for a fix for the interior.