Brickwork is built to last, but nothing lasts forever without the odd repair. Most of the jobs we get called out to fall into a handful of common problems. Here is what they are, how worried you should be, and what tends to drive the cost.
The repairs we see most
- Cracked walls. Fine hairline cracks are often cosmetic, but stepped or widening cracks, especially around windows and corners, can mean movement in the footing or the ground. Worth a look sooner rather than later.
- Failed mortar joints. When the mortar turns powdery and you can rake it out with a key, the wall needs repointing. Left too long, water gets in and the problem spreads.
- Spalled or damaged brick. Bricks that have blown their face, flaked or cracked from frost, damp or impact. We cut them out and match new ones in so the repair disappears.
- Failed lintels. The steel over a window or door rusts, expands and lifts the brickwork above it. You will often see a horizontal crack tracking along the course above the opening.
- Bowing or leaning walls. A wall that is no longer plumb, often from failed wall ties or ground movement. This one is structural, so do not sit on it.
- Rising and salt damp. Tide marks, flaking and white salt low on the wall, usually a failed or missing damp course.
When a crack is actually serious
A good rule of thumb: hairline and stable is usually fine, but anything wider than a five cent coin, stepping diagonally, or still moving deserves a proper look. If a door or window has started sticking, that is the wall telling you something has shifted.
What drives the cost of a repair
- How much brickwork has to come out and be rebuilt
- Whether the brick can be matched (heritage and discontinued bricks take sourcing)
- Access and height, which can mean scaffold
- Whether the cause is cosmetic or structural, since fixing the cause matters more than hiding the symptom
Fix the cause, not just the look
The trap with brick repairs is patching the symptom and leaving the cause. We work out why it happened first, the footing, the damp course, the lintel, the ties, then make good so it does not come back.
Send a photo of the problem and your suburb, and we will tell you straight whether it is cosmetic or structural, and what it will take to put right.