Brick Pointing in Castro Valley CA - fresh mortar that's kind to old brick
Mortar crumbling, sandy or missing between your bricks? We rake out the worn joints and refill them with mortar matched to your wall.
- Fully licensed and insured.
- Free estimates at your property.
- We reply within 1 business day.
Do the mortar joints on my brick need repointing?
Brick pointing in Castro Valley means raking the worn mortar out of the joints between your bricks and packing new mortar back in, so the wall sheds water again and the brick itself is spared.
If you're reading this, you've probably noticed the lines between your bricks looking tired, sandy or sunk back from the face. The price mostly comes down to how much wall needs new joints, how deep the old mortar has gone, whether the wall is tall enough to need scaffolding, and whether soft brick means we take the old mortar out by hand, which is slower. The schedule turns on the weather and on whether any cracked or loose bricks need brick repair first, and my written estimate spells out the work and the materials so you can see where the money goes.
How can you tell your brick needs pointing?
Mortar that scratches away
If you can drag a key across a joint and it turns to sand, the mortar has given out and water can get in behind the face of the wall. Caught now, it's a pointing job, but the longer water sits in those joints, the more of the brick around them gets pulled into the repair.
Joints sunk behind the brick
When the mortar sits well back from the brick face, every joint becomes a little ledge that holds rain against the brick. Waiting lets that wear run deeper, which means more raking out and more mortar when you do get it done.
Stair-step cracks or loose brick
Cracks that climb the wall in steps, loose or cracked bricks, flaking brick faces and leaks inside tell me the trouble goes past the mortar. New joints alone won't hold there, so we find and fix the cause before anyone repoints, or you end up paying for the same joints twice.
How we do brick pointing on your house
First I work out why the joints failed, because new mortar over an old problem just cracks again. Then we pick a mortar that matches the old one in color, hardness and how easily it lets moisture pass, since a hard, cement-heavy mix can make the brick around it wear out faster. On older, softer brick we take the old mortar out by hand. It's slower, but it's kinder to the brick edges, and I'll show you how we plan to do it before we start. The National Park Service's guidance for historic brick says the same thing, that hand chisels and mash hammers, the mason's short heavy hammer, usually do the least harm, while power tools in unskilled hands can be disastrous. Once the joints are cleaned out to an even depth, we pack the new mortar in, shape it to match the joints around it and clean the brick as we go.
Pointing is often one piece of a bigger fix. If stair-step cracks trace back to a wall that's settling, foundation repair has to come first so the new joints have something steady to sit in. Chimneys take more weather than any other brick on the house, so worn joints up there often come with a cracked cap or loose top courses, and we handle that as chimney repair.
Spot pointing on worn sections
This suits a wall where only some joints have gone soft, often low near the ground or under a downspout, and it keeps the job smaller. The new mortar can look a little fresher than the old at first, which is why matching the mix matters so much here.
Repointing the whole wall
When most of the joints scratch out easily, doing the full wall at once costs less than chasing bad spots year after year. You also get one even look across the brick instead of a patchwork.
Get a written estimate for repointing your brick
We reply within one business day to set up a free visit, then I look at the joints with you and send a written estimate, with no obligation. Photos of the worn joints and the wall's height help.
(510) 264-7156- hello@castrovalleyconcreteandmasonry.com
- Based in
- Castro Valley, CA 94546
- Hours
- Mon–Fri: 7 AM–10 PM, Sat–Sun: 8 AM–9 PM
What happens when you call about brick pointing in Castro Valley?
Here's how a pointing job goes from your first call to the final walk-around, and what you'll have in hand before you decide anything.
Call or send a message
Call (510) 264-7156 or use the form, and I set up a time to come out. Tell me roughly how old the house is, since that tells me a lot about the brick before I see it.
Look at the wall together
I check the mortar and the brick with you and talk through what I see and what your choices are. You get a written estimate that spells out the work, the mortar and the materials, so you can compare it line by line with any other quote.
Sort permits and schedule
Once you say go, we sort out any permit your job needs and put the work on the calendar. You'll know the start date before anyone shows up with tools.
Crew points, we walk it
My crew does the work with me checking in, and it's careful, noisy work, with scaffolding up for a while on a tall wall. At the end we walk the finished joints together.
Why Castro Valley homeowners call us about worn mortar
I come out and look myself
I look at your joints with you and work out why the mortar failed before we touch anything, and my crew does the work with me checking in along the way. A fix that ignores the cause just comes back, so that first look is where your money is best spent.
Repairing old brick since 2013
I've run this business since 2013, and repair work on older brick, mortar and chimneys is what we're best known for. I learned the trade patching old brick, so I'd rather spend an extra hour saving a soft brick edge than grind it off.
Fully licensed and insured
We're fully licensed and insured, which covers your house while my crew is up on the wall. It's also the license Alameda County asks about before it issues a repair permit, which I explain below.
On a pointing job, the mortar you pick and how the old mortar comes out decide how well the wall holds up. Call (510) 264-7156 or send us a message and I'll come take a look.
Brick pointing and chimney work around Castro Valley
Castro Valley is unincorporated, so building permits here come from the county, not a city hall, and applications go through the Alameda County Permit Portal. Whether a pointing job needs a permit is the county's call for your address, so we check with them before we start, and when one is required we take care of the paperwork and inspections. Before the county issues a permit to repair a structure, the applicant signs a statement that they're licensed as a contractor under state law, or exempt and on what basis. Outside the unincorporated areas, we go to that city's building office instead.
Much of the brick we point around here is on older houses, chimneys and garden walls where the mortar has simply reached the end of its life, and we see the same kind of work on jobs in Hayward and San Leandro. We're based in Castro Valley and work in the cities around it, so if yours isn't listed, just ask.
Questions about brick pointing in Castro Valley
How much does brick pointing cost in Castro Valley?
Across the US, repointing brick usually costs about $500 to $2,500 per 100 square feet, according to one cost guide, and that covers raking out the worn mortar and refilling the joints. Where your wall lands in that range comes down to the things I listed near the top of this page, and the written estimate I send after looking gives you our figure for your wall.
How do I know if pointing will fix my cracked brick?
Pointing fixes cracks that run only through the mortar and have stopped moving. Some cracks open wider in cold weather and close up in hot weather, so watching one over time shows whether it's still active, and an active crack is better sealed with a flexible sealant while a settled one can be pointed. If the bricks themselves are cracked or loose, that's the deeper problem I mentioned above, and we find the cause first.
When is the best time of year to repoint brick?
Spring and fall are the best times, according to one cost guide, which calls them ideal curing weather for mortar. The same guide says emergency work in winter or during an extreme heat wave will likely cost more, so if your joints can wait, I'd book the job for a milder season.
How often does brick need to be repointed?
One cost guide puts it at about every 25 to 30 years for brick and stone mortar. If your house is older and the joints have never been redone, it's worth having someone look before water gets past the mortar and into the brick.
Who do I contact with permit questions for masonry work in Castro Valley?
The Alameda County Building Inspection Department helps with its online permit portal at 510-670-5440 or permitbid@acpwa.org. The county's permit portal also handles plan submission, inspection scheduling and permit status checks, so you can follow along on any permit we pull for your job.
What is the difference between pointing, repointing and tuckpointing?
For most brick walls they're the same job, taking out worn mortar and replacing it with new, and tuckpointing is a somewhat loose name for it. Quotes from different masons may use any of the three, so compare what each one actually includes, not the name at the top.
Other masonry work that often goes with pointing
Foundation repair
If cracks keep coming back along the same stair-step line, the wall may be moving underneath, and that needs fixing before mortar has a steady wall to hold.
Chimney repair
A chimney stands up above the roofline in every storm, so loose bricks, a cracked cap on top or a leaning stack usually need more than new joints.
Cities we serve around Castro Valley
C&M Castro Valley Concrete & Masonry is based in Castro Valley, CA, and we do pointing and other masonry work across the cities around it. There are 12 cities with their own page here, including Oakland and Pleasanton, and each one tells you more about our work there.
Castro Valley, CA
Get your worn mortar joints looked at
Send a few photos of the joints with your message, and I'll know what to look for before I even pull up.