With summer fading fast, it’s time to start thinking about the colder months ahead, and for many homeowners throughout the U.S., this means taking precautions to protect buildings from exposure to rain, snow and freezing temperatures.
Below are some tips for preparing your home’s masonry in time for fall:
- Clean the gutters
With water and ice ever present during fall and winter, you should take the time to check and assess your home or businesses drainage system, including gutters and roofing. A blocked gutter can quickly cause structural problems that can damage the brick or foundation below.
- Check the paintwork
Peeling paint or chipped spots may indicate that an area of your home is unprotected, and waterproofing the structure might be something that you need to do.
- Have broken sidewalks and pavers repaired
As well as being a trip hazard, cracks will only ever get worse in cold weather, so it’s important to check them before fall and have them sealed and coated before winter arrives.
Here are some tips for preparing a commercial building’s masonry for fall:
- Check exterior walls for cracks
Major cracks or damage to exterior walls should be addressed at the earliest, since these can easily develop into a major structural problem as the cold weather approaches. You should also ensure that the grass or plants around your building are graded to prevent water and ice from pooling there.
Cracked, broken or spalled masonry can be removed by a professional masonry contractor, and replaced with a masonry unit that matches in color and texture to the original one.
- Restore deteriorating structures
Fall is the perfect time for taking care of any chemical cleaning, rebuilding, replacement and tuckpointing that your commercial building may need, and you’ll find that many experienced masonry contractors will use a combination of new and salvaged materials to recreate the original style of the structure.
Provided you work with a good masonry contractor, restoration work can give commercial buildings a new lease of life as winter descends.
- Tackle tuckpointing
If your commercial building (or indeed, your home), is due for tuckpointing (the process of removing and replacing damaged and missing mortar between masonry surfaces), it’s best to get this done in spring or early fall, and well in advance of winter. While there may be a few dry, sunnier days for tuckpointing to be carried out during the colder months, it’s best to get it done before any heavy snow falls.
An experienced masonry contractor will repair the mortar joints in masonry walls by grinding out mortar joints to a depth of around ¾ of an inch, using electrical grinders and hand chisels, before brushing and rinsing them and applying compacted layers of Type N mortar. The existing mortar joints will then be matched to the original structure.
As we head into the cooler months of fall, make sure your home or business is in tip top shape by having any cracks repaired, and assessing the overall health of your masonry. If you’re not sure whether work is required before winter, simply ask a local masonry contractor to come out and inspect the property – it’s better to be safe than sorry (and out of pocket!) when it comes to masonry.