Schenectady's Stockade district and surrounding neighborhoods are full of brick laid with soft lime mortar. Repointing those walls with modern high-Portland mix is the single most common — and most expensive — masonry mistake we're called to fix.
Why mortar hardness matters
Historic brick is softer than modern brick. Lime mortar is designed to be the sacrificial element: it moves, absorbs, and fails before the brick does. Hard Portland mortar reverses that relationship, so freeze-thaw pressure spalls the brick faces instead. The damage is permanent.
How to tell you need repointing
Mortar you can scratch out with a key, open joints, sand collecting at the base of the wall, and interior dampness on exterior walls.
What the work involves
Cutting out joints to a proper depth (typically 2-2.5x the joint width) by hand where the brick is soft, then packing in matched mortar in lifts and tooling the joint to match the original profile.
Cost
$12-$28 per square foot in the Capital Region, depending on access, height, and how much of the joint needs removal.
Frequently asked questions
- Can I repoint just one section?
- Yes, and we color-match. Weathered mortar takes some blending to look right.
- How long does repointing last?
- Properly matched and tooled repointing lasts 50-100 years.
