Chimney Service Requests in Garland

Local dossier · Garland, TX

Repointing is the most commonly sold and most commonly botched masonry job in Garland, and the difference is entirely in what happens before the new mortar goes in. Done properly, the failed mortar is cut out to a depth of at least two and a half times the width of the joint — so a three-eighths inch joint is raked back close to an inch — using a tool that removes the old material without damaging the brick edges. Done cheaply, someone smears fresh mortar over the face of the old joint, it looks immaculate for a season, and it falls out in sheets because there was never enough depth for it to key into. On sixty-year-old brick ranches that is the difference between a repair that lasts thirty years and one that lasts three. Prime Chimney Experts also matches the mix rather than defaulting to a modern one. Older brick is softer than what comes off a pallet today, and mortar harder than the brick around it transfers movement into the brick faces, which then spall. The joint is supposed to be the sacrificial part. Getting that backwards is the most expensive mistake available on a masonry chimney, because spalled brick cannot be repointed back — it has to be cut out and replaced. We photograph the raked joints before filling them, which is the only way for a homeowner to know which version they actually bought.

Garland's broad stock of 1960s to 1980s brick ranches — the largest concentration of mature masonry chimneys anywhere on the east side of the metroplex.