Lexicon
- Collar Joint
- Concrete Block / Split-Face Block
- Course / Coursing
- Dangerous & Hazardous Conditions
- Drip Edges
- Efflorescence
- Flashing / Through-Wall Flashing
- Grinding & Tuckpointing
- Jamb
- Lintels
- Mortar Mixes
- Parapet Wall
- Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)
- Scaffolding
- Sill
- Spalled Brick
- Tuckpointing
- Wall Ties
- Wythe
Spalled Brick
We have compiled a glossary of common masonry and tuckpointing terms to help you make informed decisions about your next masonry project. If you have any questions or want to put our decades of experience to work for you, contact us!
As bricks suffer chronic freeze/thaw damage, they tend to spall or break up into fragments. Customers often say they observe the surface of the brick or stone delaminating and shrinking in size. Often little pieces or chunks of masonry are found along the base of the decaying wall. The photos below contains numerous spalled bricks which have lost their hard, water-resistant faces. The bricks appear severely eroded. (Eroded bricks are far more porous and will absorb water deep into the wall cavity.) In these photos, a handyman applied mortar to the severely spalled bricks. Not only is the repair sloppy, but the work is guaranteed to fail since the bricks are continuing to spall, erode and pull away from the mortar.
