Brick repair in Philadelphia and Delaware County

Damaged units are cut out one at a time and replaced with brick that matches in size, color and hardness, which on an older Philadelphia or Delaware County house usually means salvaged brick rather than anything on a builder’s shelf. Where a wall is bulging or has come away from the structure behind it, the section is taken down in courses and rebuilt, sometimes with new ties. Brick repair is almost always quoted together with repointing, because the same water that broke the brick has usually taken the joints with it.

• Brick faces flaking, popping or crumbling away, which masons call spalling
• Cracked or split brick, especially in a stepped line up a wall
• Bricks missing entirely, often near the ground or under a sill
• A wall that bulges, leans or sounds hollow when tapped
• A stepped crack over a window or door, which usually means the lintel, not the brick

Any number given over the phone without seeing the wall is a guess. These are the things that change the price, and the questions Mortarook asks you so that the masons who see your project can quote it properly.

• Close photographs of the damaged brick and a wide shot of the wall
• Roughly how many bricks are affected: a handful, a few dozen, or a section
• Whether anything has already fallen
• How high up the damage is
• Whether the brick is painted

Matching brick on a hundred-year-old wall is a sourcing problem before it is a building problem, and cutting out a unit without cracking its neighbors takes practice. A stepped crack misread as brick damage means the real fault, usually a rusting lintel, gets buried behind the repair.

You describe the job once: the service, your ZIP code, a few words about what you are seeing, and photographs if you have them. Mortarook writes your description back in trade language so you can check it, then matches you with a maximum of three local masonry contractors whose registered services, service area and project size fit.

Every contractor listed as a Verified Pro has had their Pennsylvania home improvement contractor registration checked against the Attorney General’s public registry, and has a certificate of insurance on file with us. Your phone number and street address are seen only by the pros who accept your project. We do not sell your information and there is never a fourth contractor.

These are the towns and neighborhoods in our service area whose housing stock generates this work most often.

• Upper Darby→
• Fishtown→