Home › Brick and masonry repair
Brick and masonry repair for chimneys that drink the rain
Brick fails differently here than in freeze-thaw country. Puget Sound masonry spends seven months a year damp, so the clay body absorbs water slowly and deeply. When a cold snap finally lands, the trapped moisture expands and the face of the brick shears off. That flaking is called spalling, and once it starts on one brick, its neighbors usually follow within a few seasons.
What we repair
Individual spalled brick gets cut out and replaced with a matched unit. Structural cracks that step through multiple courses get evaluated for movement first, because a crack that keeps opening points at a foundation or footing issue no patch will hold against. Efflorescence, the white mineral staining, gets treated as the symptom it is: salts carried to the surface by water moving through the masonry, meaning the real repair is upstream at the crown, cap, or joints.
Brick matching in the South Sound
Most chimneys in University Place and Fircrest were laid between the 1950s and late 1970s with brick from a handful of regional yards. Close matches exist for nearly all of it through salvage and current production. You see and approve the match before a single brick comes out, because a patch that reads as a patch from the street lowers the value the repair was meant to protect.
Common questions
Can spalled brick be sealed instead of replaced?
No. Once the face is gone, the softer inner clay is exposed and absorbs water faster than the original face ever did. Sealer over spalled brick traps moisture and speeds the damage. Replacement is the repair.
Why is my chimney turning white?
White staining is efflorescence: minerals left behind as water moves through the masonry and evaporates at the surface. The stain is cosmetic. The water path causing the stain is the problem worth fixing.
Is a cracked chimney dangerous?
A stepped crack through multiple courses deserves prompt evaluation, especially on a tall stack. Most cracks are weather-driven and repairable, but movement cracks need diagnosis before repair.