The English word "joint" has many different meanings, not only in the medical, political and social realms, but also in the world of architecture. A joint, and specifically the masonry mortar joint, ...

If properly designed and constructed, brick masonry can be highly durable and tends to demand little in the way of routine repairs. However, it is still important to conduct regular inspection of the ...

Q: I live in San Francisco and have brick stairs with a landing leading to my entry door. The brick and mortar is original (about 1928), and during the recent rains, I have noticed that the wood ...

My guess is that most of the bricks you’ve seen in your lifetime have been very uniform in shape. Each brick is rectangular.

DEAR TIM: My 10-year-old house developed some cosmetic cracks in the mortar. I got some bids to have tuck-pointing work done and nearly gagged when I looked at the cost. I’m wondering about using a ...

Masonry construction is one of the oldest methods of creating built structures. However, the brick wall has changed considerably since the first fired clay bricks were laid nearly 8,000 years ago. To ...

INDIANAPOLIS – Do you know what “repointing” bricks means? By definition, it consists of “removing a portion of the deteriorated mortar and redoing the joints with new mortar.” Doing that basically ...

Pre-mixed mortar products were virtually nonexistent before the 1980s, when nearly every mason blended raw materials on-site by hand. Modern polymer-modified mortars bond more tightly than traditional ...