r/masonry

Hi Everyone,

We closed on a 1919 late-Queen Anne in Manitoba, Canada. We've had our first mouse so I was going around the property looking for how they are getting in. We have a deck/pergola that is hard to access. It has wood supports blocking crawling under. I took a look under there for the first time and noticed what looked like pieces of concrete falling off the original stone foundation. Of more concern I saw what looked like gaps between the stones. I can't really get close to see how superficial they are.

Please don't tell me this is some sort of foundation issue! Is it something to be concerned about?

We had a pre-purchase home inspection and thorough post-closing inspection. He didn't report any foundation issues and the whole house is incredibly "square" for our area. The basement is finished and had absolutely no water invasion despite having some generational storms of late.

https://imgur.com/a/BsDDJh7

Never ending story with arch related issues.

Had a few masonry companies who gave me different opinions. One said a complete rebuild another says brick ties given there's no steel lintel then third company says it's overkill. Just jack it up that should be good for next 10 years.

In the process of remediating some water intrusion/dampness on the back wall of our garage and after excavating the concrete slab that was below the door we found these four holes. Each hole was on a mortar joint, and spaced evenly from each other. Seems like a no brainer this is how water was getting in to the concrete block walls. The blocks under our porch nearby have the same holes as well.

Maybe it was holes for rebar that a prior owner never patched up? Any thoughts? Also what would be the best fix?

I'm looking for an objective opinion from experienced masons/hardscape installers on some recently completed porch work.

On the right side, I measured approximately 2¼ inches of fall over 8 feet away from the house. The opposite side of the porch has a noticeably gentler slope.

What bothers me most visually is the bottom of the right-hand stone pier. Because the porch surface drops fairly quickly across that area, the lower stone/course at the pier ends up looking wedge-shaped or “pie-shaped” when viewed from the porch. The pier cap itself is level.

My questions are:

• Is that amount of slope reasonable for this type of porch?
• If there is no drainage or elevation constraint requiring different grades, would you normally expect the two sides to have similar pitch?
• Is the wedge/pie-shaped treatment at the bottom of the pier considered a normal way to accommodate the slope?
• If not, how would an experienced mason normally detail that transition so the pier still reads square and level?

There is also a separate issue with the left pier. Looking down from above, the pier and cap appear to be rotated slightly relative to the paving grid and house. The post above it will soon be wrapped with straight TimberTech deck boards, so I'm concerned that the rotation may become more noticeable once the cladding is installed.

Does that pier look meaningfully out of square, or within normal masonry variation?

I'm genuinely looking for an objective trade opinion rather than confirmation that something is wrong.

Thank you.

I recently bought this house and this was missed upon inspection. My wife is in love with this house but I am in full on panic mode. How bad is this situation? Is this likely to break my bank or am I over reacting? I do have someone coming by to give a quote later this week. Sorry if this is the wrong sub

Hi friends,

I’m planning to install about 4–5 m² of natural stone veneer on an interior wall, roughly 2.5 m high with an L-shaped/90° corner. I got the stone of craiglist without any instructions. about 700-800lbs rough guess (161 sqft, 15 sqm).

The existing wall is drywall on studs, with a bathroom on the other side, so I definitely don’t want to risk penetrating the waterproofing.

Help - How do do I reinforce this wall to hold the weight and best install the stone?

Any advice appreciated!

This 2nd story wall in a Spanish farm house has a cavity in it!! How do I fix it , can I put new stones in ?

We’re building a new house and selected light buff mortar for our stone. These pictures were taken a couple days after the mortar was installed.

I know mortar can take a while to cure and the final color can change quite a bit, but right now it still looks very gray to me.

For the masons here:
Does this look normal for light buff mortar at this stage?
How long would you wait before judging the final color?
Should I expect this to lighten significantly over the next week or two?
If this were your job, would you be concerned about the color yet?

Not trying to jump the gun on the mason — just want to make sure we’re actually going to end up with the warmer/light buff color we selected before everything is finished.

Photos attached. First one (further away) is day of install - close up is 48 hours later.

Hi, im really worried about a crack in my wall. I’ve spoken to a couple of builders and sent them these photos but they are so busy at the moment. my anxiety is through the roof waiting for one of them to have time to come and look.

I’ve got what’s looks like a 1mm slightly diagonal 1.5 meter long crack in my internal plaster. it’s covered by wallpaper at the moment. It easily shows during the day in the warmer weather by creasing the wallpaper then mostly goes in the evening when it’s cooler outside. Its an upstairs, gable end cavity wall south facing so gets the sun all day. It starts roughly at the bottom of a windowsill up towards a chimney breast and looks like it follows up the side of the chimney a little. I’ve take the plaster off in a couple of places (about an inch) and it looks like there’s a gap between the bricks where the mortar is missing/failed.

The bottom of the crack steps out a tiny bit but I think the plaster has blown. it’s original 1950s, very thick and sounds hollow in places.

we had a much shorter similar crack looked at by a structural engineer a few months ago and he said that was due to old plaster and the heat. I feel like a really wasted his time and he was lovely so feel reluctant to call him again so soon

Theres also a 1mm horizontal crack at the top of the window that’s been there 4 years at least, though when looking at it today it could be a bit longer than it was. window opens fine, there’s no cracks showing outside

I noticed this crack in my foundation with a solid chunk at the top missing. The hole itself is not deep up top and there is no interior crack or water intrusion evident from the inside. I walked the rest of the property and there are no other exterior cracks.

I have no idea how long this has been like this , it’s tucked behind a tree I never crawl behind.

Is this call a structural engineer first? Or is this a fill/seal and monitor situation?

Side note; is this a “parge coat” of some sort over the actual slab foundation ( it’s poured concrete )

I've got a 100 year old home in Ontario, Canada. The bottom few feet of the exterior walls are all built from this textured hollow cement block and I'm trying to figure out the best process and product to re-paint it with. Some of what I've read says it should be sealed, some sites say it needs to breathe. This is along a driveway so will get exposure to about a foot of snow in the winter. We haven't seen any leaking, but had the interior waterproofed with dimple mat when we replaced the basement slab a few years ago.

Anyone have some guidance on how to approach this?

Detached garage back right side. How bad is it? Thanks in advance

There is a gutter drain that empties over this part of the wall. I’d potentially like to have the drain moved to exit directly out of the brick instead of pouring over the top.

I'm repointing this mortar on my patio. 28 hours after I laid it down you get a massive rainstorm overnight. I'm just wondering how screwed I am I can make a divot in it with a tool but not with my fingernails

Just wanted to have an opinion on what to do.

Recent FTHB here - looking for general insight / concern level on this part of our home where the brick is coming loose from underneath our window. It gives a little wiggle if you push on it. It’s towards the top of our priority list to get looked at - would a brick masonry be the best person to contact? Any other general feedback appreciated for someone very new to this.