Jeff Somers is a freelancer who has been writing about writing, books, personal finance, and home maintenance since 2012. When not writing, Jeff spends his free time fixing up his old house. He has ...

Brick houses are hard to damage. Anyone familiar with The Three Little Pigs knows that. Inevitably, however, there comes a time when the mortar between bricks begins to degrade. The process of repair, ...

We've all seen it: The brick or stone wall where the mortar is all powdery, cracked or non-existent. "Mortar can disintegrate over time because of weather as a result of the freeze-thaw cycles. The ...

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 ...

Q: I live in one of the small brick houses built in South Arlington during the 1930s. There are several places on our westward-facing exterior wall where the plaster on the inside wall bubbles up.

Repointing brick for a 3 story brownstone back wall that’s 400sqft. Is $8/per sqft a good estimated cost?

Last week, I fielded no fewer than five phone calls from homeowners with the same grim news. They found it nearly impossible to get quotes from contractors to do fairly simple repairs. Each caller’s ...