Brick Mortar Repair - DIY 

If you can repair the mortar, save some money and learn the process by watching my video and completing it yourself, I'll take some fulfillment from your gratitude and wish you well.

@@notyouraveragejoe855 Both my indoor fireplace brickwork and my outdoor brick entryway are small enough to do myself, with planning and training. I'll get it done.

Well said about patience, certainly not the quickest nor the most efficient method but I haven't sung the blues since completing it. I'm hoping to get 10 or more years out of my time and effort but time will tell. Good luck on your project.

Cheers, I hope it can help you out.

Hope it can help you out.

Thanks for stopping by and taking a look.

If you're not familiar with the tools and products, start with a very small experimental batch (try an inconspicuous area doing one brick gap joint) to gain experience with the mortar mix, tools, drying time, pouring, shaping and residue cleaning. Good luck Laura, I like your enthusiasm.

I did the same thing! Lesson learned.

Thanks mate, I wish you well with your project.

Well said.

Thanks for stopping by and taking a look.

You bet!

Thank you.

Hi Dani, I wish you well on your project. Not sure if this video link will apply to your mold situation but I have had success cleaning dark mold off of bricks. It might be worth a look.. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-67Whmjbxtzs.html

@@notyouraveragejoe855 wow! That’s what it looks like. I just added the ingredients to Tomm shopping list. Thank you! I’ll let it sit 24 hours and follow this to a T. I watched a lot of videos to prepare and found yours most helpful and best suited for my plans .

Good luck to you Gina on your project, I wish you success.

@@notyouraveragejoe855 Thank you - I have to get this right

Hi Gina, my first concern was that you said "mortar deterioration on house" as opposed to "stucco deterioration on house" ... just make sure you are working with the correct compounds for the job. Second, does that mean you have brick work as part of your house structure or is it more exterior decorative brick? For either one, you may want to ask a licensed contractor as to their opinion on repairs and local building codes to follow if any. My repair was to an exterior wall and only the top surface between the bricks was needed, fairly simple. Cheers.

@@notyouraveragejoe855 yes - thank you - I'm having someone come check it & will go from there

That was 2 years ago and it still looks like the day I finished it. I don't know how many years I'll get out of it but so far, no regrets for time invested.

Hi Ian, you must have skipped past that part of the video because I do show the glue that I used (Blue label = QUIKRETE Concrete Bonding Adhesive 1 qt. or if not available, try Sika Pro Select Concrete Bonding Adhesive & Acrylic Fortifier 1 qt .. both are about $10 each). The mortar mix by Rapid Set was a 25# box at

Neither of which I possessed at the time but something to consider going forward, thanks.

Hi Matt. Understand that I am not a professional in this area. I used the bonding agent because I was bonding new mortar to old mortar but I did not mix it into the mortar itself. That would cause the Rapid Set mortar to bond more so to itself rather than the old surfaces or so I read. That's why you see me coating the bonding layer over the old, cleaned, dampened surface first before I applied the new mortar. If I had removed ALL of the old brick mortar, I would have just filled the joints with new mortar mix by itself. Rapid set already has bonding agents within it. There is such a thing as making a "bonding slurry" to bond old concrete to new concrete = mixing in the bonding agent with Portland cement and using the "slurry" as a middle layer between the old + slurry + new but that process need not apply in my situation. I've never used BondCrete but I did read that some do apply it to mortar mix to enhance the material. (BondCrete is a liquid bonding agent composed of a polyvinyl acetate homopolymer resin. Used to bond new Portland cement-based and gypsum plaster products to existing properly prepared cement-based substrates. Basic Uses: BondCrete is designed for exterior and interior use to bond new concrete, Portland cement plaster, cementitious products, and gypsum plaster mixes to structurally sound concrete substrates). BUT, you need to know the correct ratios of water, BondCrete and mortar substrate to mix and I am unaware of those details. Finally, regarding Rapid Set vs Standard Mortar mix: Just add water to Rapid Set and it bonds and hardens very quickly and cures to full strength in just a day or two whereas standard mortar mix (some part Portland Cement, some part lime, and some part sand) will have more workable application time and takes roughly a month to cure and fully strengthen. Whether you add water or some part BondCrete or some part BondCrete AND Water to the Standard mortar mix is up to you, so consult with a professional masonry worker and do your own research. I hope that helps, thanks for commenting and good luck with your project.

Four walls? I hear you on that task! Sounds like you selected a easier and less time consuming approach than mine, (put tube in caulking gun and squeeze), and hey, you got over 10 years of service out of it but now because of the redo work involved, you probably want to hire a professional. They have the tools to make the process easier.

In think in masonry they're also called grout / mortar bags. You bring up a good point as far as a different method of application, I just don't have any experience in using one. Knowing how to adjust the flow diameter, how much to pour into the bag, how often to clean between applications -- mix can harden quickly, and becoming skillful in the application would require some time and learning, but I understand your thinking.

@@notyouraveragejoe855 I'm not expert or anything, I just tried filling some cracks before and I sorta made a mess and got too much mortar on the bricks. I just needed a smaller dispenser method I think. I also didn't get a good match on the mortar not dark enough.

Application does require some patience, along with a steady hand. There's also mortar repair and fillers that come in a tube by which you use a caulking gun to apply but that too has its pros and cons. I've had good results cleaning off "residue" from brick or concrete with diluted muriatic acid. As for matching the color to previous mortar, that's tough to do. You don't know what the previous contractor used, let alone if they made it from scratch. You can add powdered colored pigments (LaHabra makes them and Quickrete makes some liquid cement dyes but I'm not sure if they apply to mortar as well) to your mortar mix to alter the final product color but matching that to an existing color is also challenging, let alone making multiple consistent batch colors. A professional contractor probably would have ground out all of the deteriorating mortar and reset the entire wall with their mortar mixture. Exactly what I didn't want to do or pay for, ha. In my situation, I already had level bricks in a straight line; so, all I needed to do was prep work and fill in with new mortar. Then, top off the sides and top surface to keep it looking uniform in color.

Hi Leena, I will mention a few things to consider but ask a masonry professional in your neighborhood or the appropriate employee at a big box hardware store (ACE, Lowes, Home Depot) because I am not a professional. 1. I have read that silicone sealants are ideally used on non-porous materials, due to the fact that most of them have acidic properties during the curing process, which can be damaging to porous materials (such as brick). For cement base surfaces and bricks a neutral curing acid-free silicone sealant is recommended. 2. Make sure the type of silicone sealant you're using is designed to bond to whatever surface material you are applying it to or you may get a weak bond, poor seal and or alteration of color. 3. Filling the gap joints between many bricks is a lot of tube material you would go through, unless you use a "backer rod" of some sort to mostly fill the voided space, say 2/3-3/4 of the joint gap and then top off the surface with your sealant. If you just needed to fix and fill 1 or 2 bricks as a quick solution, that may work but others hopefully reading this and who know this line of work, may guide you differently.

@@notyouraveragejoe855 thank you for responding 🌷 I will take into consideration your advice, and will consult someone with experience as you say, a professional who can direct me towards the easiest and hopefully not too expensive way to fix my steps. I don't have funds to hire someone but am willing to try to do it myself. Many years ago, I bought this house. I found I had a hole in the p-trap under my kitchen sink. The connections didn't look like the photos in my Readers digest book of home repairs, so I took photos with my phone and went to a plumbing supply company. They gave me exactly what I needed along with instructions. I am proud to say I fixed the leak and didn't even break a fingernail ! Lol ... thanks again.

Hi Frank, I point out the type of bonding agent I used in the video at 1:47-2:00... It's called "Concrete Bonding Adhesive" (Blue Label) and it's by QUIKRETE. It took me a week to complete that project by putting in a few hours every day.

Hi Tom, to be clear, you're reading the "comments section" because I did not use a mortar bag during my video. You can probably find them (called grout, grout masonry mortar, or mortar bags - they're similar conceptually to a piping, pastry, or cake frosting bag with a cylindrical cone shape) at the big box retail home improvement stores such as Lowe's, Home Depot, or other hardware / masonry store or go on-line to similar stores or Amazon. Be sure the bags you order are designed for your substrate material and watch a video on how to use and apply it. It can take some getting use to (how to fill, twist, pressure flow, selection of tip or cutting to size and the application process. Plus, you'll likely need some other tools (a brick jointer or similar to press in the mix material and a brush to wipe away the excess mortar from the brick surface). I hope that helps.

That certainly is an option but I didn't have one on hand or plan on purchasing one at the time.

An oscillating multi-tool with a grout removal blade is a good option IF the mortar is weak/degraded enough. It also is very handy for a load of other jobs (sawing in awkward places, sanding, scraping) and doesn't kick dust anywhere near as much as a grinder! Of course, this only works when the mortar is weak. Otherwise you spend hours and hours, destroying blades and getting barely a scratch in the mortar. But it is amazing for where the mortar is weak.

Yes, there are better and faster tool options available for old mortar removal but I had none of them and still got the job accomplished with a more primitive approach :) ... Thanks for posting though, it gives others who are reading the comments, other options to look into before tackling their own job.

Yeah Peter, a full week considering I didn't work on it all day long but another full week to curate the content and produce the video.. lol. Quite the learning curve prepping, mixing, applying, fine tuning, cleaning, and getting all the necessary amateur tools and equipment organized together every day. Your brick project on the other hand, is more complex and very decorative. While looking at all that mortar, layers and brick angles, the word "patience" comes to my mind along with... "Perhaps, I should hire a professional for this restoration project." ... depending on how you approach it but you appear to tackle a great many DIY projects; so, good luck with that beautiful brick work and thanks for commenting and sharing.

Not according to what I read or at least interpreted. If I mixed it as you stated, with new, premixed mortar mix (which already contains bonding properties), it makes the new mortar material harden and bond more so to itself rather than the old material (a debatable topic beyond my knowledge); thus, potentially weakening the chemical bond between new on old. By applying the adhesive as I did to the surface of the dampened brick and old mortar, the new mortar mix will chemically bond better to the older structure. Some bonding adhesives suggest that you wait until it becomes tacky or almost dry before applying the new mixture. Now, I have heard of a "slurry," (adding a layer between old material and new material to act as the bonding layer), by which you add the bonding adhesive to Portland cement and apply that mixture to the dampened old surface. This may be what you are referring to and then, you apply your new mixture over the slurry after a designated drying time.