Brick Repair Calgary | Masonry Repair and Repointing

What Fails On Calgary Masonry

Brick is the most durable cladding a building can wear, but only as long as the mortar and the details protecting it hold. In this climate, three things go first.

Mortar joints

Freeze-thaw grinds joints from the surface in. Once mortar goes sandy or recedes, every rain loads the wall with water and every frost pries it apart.

Spalled brick faces

Water trapped behind a hard mortar or a sealed surface pops the fired face right off the brick, and an unfaced brick erodes fast.

Parapets, sills and caps

The horizontal details take the worst weather. Failed caps and sills funnel water into the wall core, and parapets loosen course by course.

Repointing Done The Right Way

Good repointing is quiet work: joints raked to sound depth, dust flushed, mortar matched to the original in colour and, critically, in strength, then tooled to the existing profile so the repair disappears into the wall.

That strength-matching rule is where cheap repointing destroys buildings. Modern hard mortar against soft older brick makes the brick the sacrificial layer. We match the mortar to the masonry, which is exactly the method heritage work demands, and it's the standard we apply to every house, not just the landmark jobs.

On the boards right now: heritage repointing in progress on Calgary's CIBC building, original joint profiles matched, failing mortar raked and replaced by hand.

Heritage brick repointing in progress on the CIBC building in Calgary, fresh joints beside original failing mortar — Heritage repointing in progress, Calgary's CIBC building: old joints out, matched mortar in.

From One Joint To A Full Rebuild

The same crew handles surgical repairs and structural rebuilds, so the fix matches the problem instead of the salesman. Managing a building? Commercial services →

Repointing programs

Elevation-by-elevation joint restoration for homes, storefronts and multi-family buildings, phased so budgets survive.

Rebuilds

Parapets, columns, window sills, and wall sections rebuilt plumb with matched brick and proper flashing details.

Stone and veneer too

Failing stone veneer stripped and re-set, garages and facades re-clad. See the stone masonry page for that side of the trade.

Calgary commercial storefront mid-restoration, stucco cut back over brick arch and sheathing exposed — Storefront masonry and envelope restoration in progress, Calgary.

Calgary garage refinished in dark brick-format stone veneer — Garage re-clad in brick-format veneer, stripped to substrate and rebuilt.

BRICK & MASONRY FAQ

What Calgary homeowners ask first.

What is repointing and when does brick need it? +

Repointing is cutting out failed mortar joints and refilling them with fresh mortar. When joints have receded, cracked, or gone sandy to the touch, water gets behind the brick, and in Calgary's freeze-thaw climate that's what spalls brick faces and loosens walls. If you can rake a joint out with a key, it's time.

Will the new mortar match the old? +

We match both colour and strength. Strength matters more than people think: mortar harder than the surrounding brick causes the brick itself to sacrifice instead of the joint, which is how repointing done cheap destroys heritage masonry. Softer, compatible mortar protects the brick.

Do you repair or replace spalled bricks? +

Both, depending on depth. Surface spalling on a face can sometimes be dressed and protected; bricks that have lost their fired face keep deteriorating and get cut out and replaced with matched units.

When is a rebuild better than a repair? +

When movement, not just weathering, is in play: leaning parapets, stair-step cracking through multiple courses, bowed sections. We rebuild parapets, columns and wall sections on proper footings of sound masonry rather than chasing cracks forever.

Do you repair chimneys too? +

Yes, chimney masonry is the same trade at height. Crowns, repointing, spalled brick and rebuilds are covered on our chimney repair page.

Brick and Masonry Repair Calgary

Get A Free Quote