From the crew
What we see on Chicagoland walls, what it means, and what to do about it — footnoted, same as the rest of the site.
Chicago's tuckpointing season is set by wall temperature, not the calendar. Here is what NPS, BIA and NOAA's Chicago normals actually say about when to book the work.
Efflorescence on Chicago brick is salt left behind by water moving through the wall. BIA says after year one it means water is getting in. Read the stain before you scrub it.
Mortar types N, O, S and M differ by how much lime is in the mix. The strongest one is almost never the right one, and on an older wall it is the expensive mistake.
A stone sill that slopes back toward the wall feeds water into the masonry. BIA lists neutral or negative slope on sills as a structural indicator.
The crown is the slab across the top of your chimney. It is the smallest piece of masonry on the building and the one holding the most water off everything below it. Here is how to read it, and what a correct one has that a failed one does not.
A weep hole is the exit door for water already inside your wall. BIA anticipates that maintenance work will seal them shut. Here is how to check yours and what to do.
The tool that cuts your joints open decides how much of your brick survives the repair. NPS and BIA both draw the same line, and it runs through the head joints.
The lintel is the steel angle carrying the brick over your window. When it corrodes it expands, and the wall above it has to move. Here is how to read it.
Sealing brick is the most commonly sold masonry upsell in Chicago and the one both NPS and BIA spend the most words warning about. Here is what the standards actually say.
A spalled brick face is not the start of the problem. It is the end of one. What matters is which of the four causes put the water there.
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