The Problem
The homeowner of a 1961 brick ranch in East Norridge noticed brick face material on the ground along the south wall after a hard winter. On inspection, 24 bricks on the south and west elevations had lost significant face material - some completely, exposing the rough interior core. The spalling was concentrated in two horizontal bands, suggesting a pattern rather than random damage.
The pattern matched the location of a repointing job done several years earlier. The previous contractor had used Type S mortar - a high Portland content mix - on what is relatively soft 1961 face brick. Type S compressive strength runs approximately 1,800 PSI; the original brick was designed to work with Type N mortar at around 750 PSI. The harder mortar trapped moisture in the brick body rather than allowing vapor to move out through the joints, and three winters of freeze-thaw cycles fractured the brick faces along the softer inner grain.
Our Solution
We removed all 24 spalled bricks by grinding the mortar bed on each side and lifting the brick cleanly from its seat. Brick that had partially spalled but retained structural integrity in the body was assessed individually - six bricks in borderline condition were also removed to prevent further face loss.
Replacement brick was sourced from a salvage supplier with period inventory from early 1960s suburban construction. The original brick is a light red with a lightly textured face, which is common to that era. After testing three candidates, we selected salvage brick with the closest color and texture match and verified nominal dimensions against the existing coursing.
All replacement bricks were set in Type N mortar. The eight joints immediately surrounding each replaced brick were removed to a depth of 3/4 inch and repointed with Type N as well - any remaining hard mortar adjacent to the new bricks would continue the same moisture-trap mechanism.
The Result
The 24 replaced bricks are seated correctly and the surrounding joints are repointed with the right mortar type. The south and west elevations no longer have open face spalls exposing the brick interior to moisture.
The salvage brick has aged to a close match with the existing wall. The mortar color was matched using sand aggregate sampled from a protected joint on the garage rear wall, which had not been previously repointed.
