The Problem
The homeowner contacted us after a structural engineer had assessed and cleared minor foundation settlement on the north side of their 1955 Cape Cod. The engineer’s report noted that movement had stabilized and recommended repointing the opened mortar joints on the north wall as a follow-up repair. The homeowner asked us to assess the full building while we were there.
The north elevation showed the expected settlement signature: a stair-step crack pattern running diagonally across three courses of brick near the northeast corner, with joint gaps up to 5/8 inch wide where the wall had moved slightly. Beyond the settlement area, the north face showed mortar recession of 5/8 to 3/4 inch across the full height - pre-existing deterioration that the settlement had not caused but that needed addressing regardless.
Walking the other three elevations confirmed what we expected on a 70-year-old Cape Cod: the east and west faces averaged 1/2 inch recession, and even the protected south face showed 3/8 inch recession in the upper courses below the roofline. No other settlement indicators were present on the south, east, or west walls.
The structural event had triggered the call, but the building needed a full facade tuckpoint regardless.
Our Solution
We began on the north elevation and worked clockwise. All joints were cut to 3/4 inch depth using a 4-inch angle grinder with a 1/8-inch diamond blade. In the settlement crack zone, joint gaps that already exceeded 3/4 inch were cleaned to their full depth with a cold chisel and compressed air to remove loose material from the crack walls before packing.
The replacement mortar was Type N at a 1:1:6 portland-lime-sand ratio, appropriate for a mid-century Cape Cod using standard Chicago-area brick with medium absorption. The sand aggregate was a grey-tan blend that closely matched the original mortar color visible in protected joints under the window sills on the east and south faces.
All joints were packed in two lifts. The settlement crack joints received a third intermediate lift on the widest gaps to ensure full consolidation without shrinkage voids. Final tooling on all four elevations used a 1/2-inch concave jointer to match the original profile present in the undisturbed sections of the south wall.
The Result
The completed tuckpointing closed all settlement-related gaps and brought the north elevation into the same condition as the rest of the facade. The stair-step crack pattern is no longer visible in the finished work.
All four elevations now read uniformly from the street. The homeowner has a written repair record, including the mortar formula, to accompany the structural engineer’s stabilization documentation.
