The mortar joint profile is the shape of the mortar face between two bricks, created when a mason runs a tool along the fresh mortar to compress and finish the joint. It is not a decorative afterthought. The profile determines how water behaves on the wall face, how durable the exposed mortar surface is, and on architecturally distinctive homes, it is a design feature that defines the character of the facade. When tuckpointing is done with the wrong profile, the consequences are both functional and visual, and in most cases they are not reversible.
Most homeowners have never thought about joint profiles. Most tuckpointing contractors work in concave because it is the fastest to execute and it is what most building inspectors and architects specify for new construction. When you hire a contractor who defaults to concave on a wall that had V-joint or grapevine tooling, you get a result that sheds water adequately but permanently changes how your home looks from the street.
Since 1987, Delta - Masonry and Tuckpointing has matched joint profiles on everything from Winnetka Georgian Revivals with original grapevine tooling to Prairie School homes in Glencoe with deliberately raked horizontal joints. This post explains each profile, which shed water and which trap it, and why the match matters more than most people understand.
What Mortar Joint Profiles Are and How They Are Made
A joint profile is created at the end of the mortar application step, when the mortar has set firm but not hard. The mason runs a jointing tool along the exposed mortar face, pressing and shaping it. The pressure from tooling compresses the surface of the mortar, which increases the surface density of the exposed face and makes it more resistant to water entry. BIA Technical Note 7B on water penetration resistance confirms that tooled joints are denser at the face and more water-resistant than untooled surfaces.
The shape left by the tooling determines the profile. Different tools produce different profiles. A curved steel jointer produces concave. A V-shaped tool produces V-joint. A flat steel rod dragged under pressure produces flush. A raking tool at a set depth produces raked. A specialty bead-shaped tool produces grapevine.
The profile is permanent. Once mortar cures, the face is set. The only way to change a joint profile is to grind out the cured mortar and apply new mortar. This is why the profile decision during repointing carries weight. A contractor working quickly through a job will tool every joint with whatever tool is already in hand. That default choice may or may not be what the wall originally had.
The choice of profile also cannot be separated from the mortar type decision. As we cover in Type N vs. Type S Mortar: Which Chicago Homes Need and Lime vs. Portland Cement Mortar: The Historic Home Standard, the binder must be matched to the brick. The profile must be matched to the original wall. Both decisions happen before any grinding starts.
The Seven Profiles: What Each One Does
Concave
The concave joint has a smooth, slightly curved surface that dips inward from both brick edges toward the center of the joint. It is the most widely used profile in contemporary masonry work and is referenced in the BIA Technical Note 8 as the preferred profile for exposed masonry because it combines water-shedding performance with maximum tooling compression.
The curved geometry creates no horizontal ledges where water can sit. Rain hits the face and runs down. The surface compression from the curved jointer makes the exposed mortar face denser than the interior of the joint. For most residential applications and for repointing on any home where the original profile is unknown or standard, concave is the correct default.
Where concave is the wrong choice: on homes where the original masons used a distinctly different profile for architectural reasons. Using concave on a wall where every joint was V-joint or grapevine produces a joint that performs well but looks completely different from the untouched sections.
V-Joint
The V-joint is formed by a triangular steel tool pressed along the joint center, creating a sharp V-shaped channel in the mortar face. It provides good water-shedding because the V-shape creates no horizontal shelf. Water hits the angled faces of the V and runs off to the sides.
V-joint tooling is associated with formal architectural styles, particularly Georgian Revivals, Colonial Revivals, and English Tudors from the 1920s through 1960s. The profile creates a more pronounced shadow pattern than concave, complementing the decorative brick detail on these homes. Winnetka’s housing stock from this era includes a dense concentration of homes with original V-joint or grapevine tooling, and the city’s Georgian Revivals along Sheridan Road and Indian Hill are among the North Shore homes where profile matching matters most. Applying standard concave during repointing on a 1938 Winnetka Georgian destroys the intended profile. The difference is readable from the sidewalk.
Grapevine
The grapevine joint is produced by a specialty tool with a curved bead profile, pressing a raised ridge down the center of the mortar face. The resulting texture resembles a stylized vine. It is a decorative profile associated with high-end residential buildings from the late 19th century through the mid-20th century.
Grapevine joints appear on the same category of Winnetka homes that have V-joint tooling: Georgian Revivals, formal Colonials, and Tudor Revivals. Reproducing a grapevine joint during repointing requires the correct tool. Attempting to approximate grapevine with a concave tool produces a noticeably different result, one the homeowner will see for as long as the mortar lasts.
Struck
The struck joint is made by cutting the mortar back at an angle from the top edge of the joint, leaving the lower edge roughly flush or slightly projecting. The result creates a horizontal ledge at the bottom of the joint face.
The struck profile is a poor performer in Northern Illinois. The horizontal ledge at the joint bottom holds water against the mortar face, prolonging moisture contact. Dozens of freeze-thaw cycles per winter means standing water at a joint face is a guarantee of accelerated deterioration. Struck joints are historically associated with interior work and protected facades. When struck joints appear on an exterior wall, either they were applied by a contractor working quickly without thinking about water management, or the wall was once more sheltered than it is today.
Weathered
The weathered joint is the opposite of struck in orientation. The lower edge projects slightly forward from the brick face, while the upper edge is cut back. This geometry directs water outward and downward off the joint face, making it one of the better water-shedding profiles for exposed masonry.
Weathered joints appear less commonly than concave on post-war construction but are found on older residential masonry. On south and west-facing walls with heavy rain exposure, the weathered profile’s forward-drip geometry can outperform concave in terms of keeping water off the mortar face. The projecting lower edge is more vulnerable to physical damage than the recessed concave profile, which is a practical consideration on walls at grade level where equipment or foot traffic is a factor.
Flush
A flush joint is trimmed flat and even with the brick faces on both sides, leaving no recess or projection. It is the simplest joint to produce, but it performs poorly as a weather joint.
The flush surface fully exposes the mortar face to driving rain. There is no geometry that directs water away from the joint. The tooling compression that makes concave and V-joint surfaces denser is absent or present only from the trowel pass rather than a dedicated jointing tool. BIA Technical Note 7B notes that untooled or flatly trimmed joints are more porous at the surface and deteriorate faster than properly tooled profiles. Flush joints are appropriate for interior masonry or masonry that will be painted or coated. On exposed exterior masonry in a Northern Illinois climate, flush joints weather faster than any other profile and require repointing sooner.
Raked
Raked joints are formed by dragging a raking tool along the fresh mortar at a set depth, removing material to leave a recessed channel with a flat face back from the brick edges. The depth can vary from a quarter inch to three-quarters of an inch or more, depending on the design intent.
Raked joints create horizontal shadow lines that are a deliberate design feature in certain architectural styles. The most significant use of raked joints in the Chicagoland area is Prairie School architecture, where deeply raked horizontal joints combined with flush or slightly recessed vertical joints produce the strong horizontal emphasis that defines the style. Glencoe contains several homes designed by Frank Lloyd Wright and other Prairie School architects, and the village has local landmark designations that reflect its preservation awareness. The Prairie homes along Glencoe’s ravine-adjacent streets use distinctive Roman brick with integrated masonry details where the rake depth is a compositional fact, not a finish option.
The functional challenge with raked joints is that the horizontal channel collects water. On facades with heavy rainfall exposure, a deep rake means water sits in the joint channel rather than running off the face. Prairie School buildings were often designed with careful roof overhangs and orientation to manage this. Repointing a raked joint correctly means matching the original rake depth and back-face geometry, not defaulting to a shallower or differently shaped channel.
Winnetka: Where Profile Matching Is Non-Negotiable
Winnetka’s housing stock from the 1920s through 1960s includes a dense concentration of Georgian Revivals, Colonial Revivals, and English Tudors built with face brick in decorative bond patterns, specifically Flemish bond and English bond. These patterns alternate or mix stretchers and headers in a way that creates a wall texture the original masons considered part of the architectural composition. Multiple Winnetka properties appear on the National Register of Historic Places, and the village’s Architectural Review Committee oversees exterior changes on many properties.
The joint profile on these walls was part of that composition. V-joint and grapevine tooling creates sharper, more emphatic shadow lines than concave. On a Flemish bond wall viewed from twenty feet, the joint profile defines the visual texture as much as the brick color does.
When we work in Winnetka on an original Georgian Revival, the first step before any mortar removal is documenting the existing joint profile in sections of the wall that have never been repointed. That document guides every joint we tool. The client can see the difference between an original V-joint section and a previously repointed concave section before we start. Our job is to make every repaired section look like the original sections, not like a generic tuckpointing job.
Winnetka also has homes with prior repointing done in standard concave. On those homes, the question for the homeowner is whether they want the cosmetic impact of the mismatched joints restored by grinding out the concave repointing and doing the full job in the correct profile, or whether they want to stabilize the remaining original joints with matching tooling and live with the visible repair history. Both are legitimate choices. The important thing is that the choice is made deliberately.
For more on what tuckpointing involves and how profile matching fits into the job, see What Happens During a Tuckpointing Job and The Importance of Mortar Color Matching in Tuckpointing.
Prairie School Homes in Glencoe and the North Shore
The Prairie School buildings of Glencoe, Kenilworth, and the broader North Shore represent the most historically significant case for joint profile matching. Wright’s domestic Prairie work and the work of his contemporaries produced buildings where the deeply raked horizontal joint is not a finish detail but a fundamental compositional element.
In Prairie design, the horizontal rake emphasizes the building’s connection to the earth and the horizontal plane of the Midwest landscape. The shadow created by a three-quarter inch deep horizontal joint reads as a strong horizontal line from the street. Fill that joint to a shallower concave, and the building loses a defining characteristic. The loss is visible, permanent, and on landmark properties it conflicts with preservation requirements.
Glencoe’s ravine-adjacent homes and lakefront properties carry historic landmark status that the village actively enforces. The village’s Historic Preservation Commission reviews exterior changes on designated structures, and preservation-sensitive repairs are standard expectation. A prairie home repointed with the wrong profile does not satisfy that standard regardless of mortar composition or color.
Matching a Prairie School raked joint requires the correct rake depth, consistent back-face geometry across the repaired section, and flush or near-flush vertical joints that do not interrupt the horizontal emphasis. The depth must match original sections exactly. A three-quarter inch rake and a half-inch rake produce noticeably different shadow lines in direct light.
See Prairie School Masonry in Chicagoland for more on working with these buildings and their specific mortar and material requirements.
Highland Park: Mid-Century Homes and Profile Consistency
Highland Park presents a different profile challenge than Winnetka or Glencoe. The city’s housing stock spans from 1920s estates near the lake and ravines through 1950s and 1960s colonials and split-levels in the inland neighborhoods. The profile question on these mid-century homes is simpler: concave was used consistently, and concave is what the repair should match. But the city-content data shows that many Highland Park homes from the 1920s to 1940s were later repointed in the 1960s to 1980s with incorrect Portland cement mortar. When those incorrect repairs are now removed and replaced, the profile of the replacement mortar must match the original sections, not the incorrect interim repairs.
The ravine-adjacent properties in Highland Park also face the moisture and drainage conditions that make profile selection more consequential. Walls near the ravines stay damp longer, and a water-trapping profile like struck or flush on a north-facing ravine-side wall compounds the deterioration. Concave is the correct default for these walls, and it is what we use.
For historic restoration work on Highland Park’s older homes, the profile and the mortar type are linked decisions. The same soft-brick compatibility that requires Type N or Type O mortar also limits the tooling pressure that can be applied during profile formation. Overcorrecting a joint with excessive tool pressure on soft brick can fracture the arris.
Georgian and Formal Facades: The Street-Visible Profile Problem
Beyond Winnetka and the Prairie School cases, the profile-matching principle applies to any formal facade where the joint is visible as part of the architectural composition. Georgian Revivals, Colonial Revivals, and formal symmetrical facades throughout the North Shore were built with attention to the visual texture of the brick face.
A mismatched profile on a formal facade reads from the street. The difference between V-joint and concave is visible at conversational distance on a well-lit day. On a home in Winnetka or Highland Park where the original joints were tooled with care, a repointing job done with the wrong tool changes the appearance of the home in a way the homeowner did not expect and cannot easily reverse.
This is why the question of joint profile belongs in the estimate conversation. A contractor who defaults to concave on every project is not necessarily doing substandard work in the technical sense. They are doing work calibrated for generic residential masonry, not for architecturally distinctive facades. On a Winnetka Georgian, those are not the same thing.
For context on tuckpointing costs and scope, see Tuckpointing vs. Repointing: What’s the Difference and Understanding Tuckpointing: The Complete Guide for Illinois Homeowners.
How to Identify Your Home’s Original Profile
If you are planning repointing and you want to ensure the profile is matched, here is how to identify what your home originally had.
Find an area of the wall that has clearly not been repointed. This is usually the least-exposed section, often under an overhang, in a protected corner, or on a rear elevation away from prior contractor attention. In that area, crouch down to eye level with the mortar joint and look at it in raking light, a light source at a low angle from the side that makes shadows visible. The profile is apparent: a smooth curved shadow for concave, a sharp V-shadow for V-joint, a horizontal ridge for grapevine, a flat back for flush, a deep horizontal channel for raked.
If there has been prior repointing and the original profile is unclear, look for section-to-section variation. Original mortar and original tooling will have a different color and texture than previous repair work. The original profile should be readable in the untouched sections.
Bring your observation to the contractor conversation. Ask specifically how they plan to tool the joints, and ask them to show you the tools they use. A contractor who carries only a concave jointer for residential work is telling you their default. On a standard home from the 1960s or 1970s, that default is probably fine. On a 1938 Georgian in Winnetka with original grapevine tooling, it is not.
Scheduling Profile-Matched Tuckpointing on the North Shore
If you have a home with original V-joint, grapevine, or Prairie-raked joints, the right contractor is one who has done this work before and brings the correct tools. Ask to see examples of matched-profile repointing on comparable homes. Ask what joint profiles they carry tools for. Ask how they document the original profile before starting removal.
Delta - Masonry and Tuckpointing has matched joint profiles on Georgian Revivals, Colonials, Tudor Revivals, Prairie School buildings, and standard residential masonry across Chicagoland’s North Shore and northwest suburbs since 1987. We work in Winnetka, Glencoe, Highland Park, and throughout the broader service area.
For tuckpointing on a home where the profile matters, call (847) 713-1648 or contact us online to schedule an estimate. We will assess your current joint condition, document the original profile, and give you a clear picture of what profile-matched repointing involves on your specific home.
The joint profile is not a finish choice. It is a weather-management decision that also happens to define the appearance of a wall.