Why did the face come off my brick?

Water got into the brick, froze, and expanded. Pre-1930 St. Louis common brick is porous and soft, so it soaks up water through failed joints or a bad sill and holds it. When it freezes, the ice pushes the hardest fired outer skin away from the softer body behind. A mortar mix harder than the brick makes it worse by directing wall movement into the face.

Can spalled brick be patched instead of replaced?

We do not recommend it. Patching compounds sit on the surface, hold water behind them and usually fall off within a few winters, taking more of the brick with them. Replacing the unit costs more up front and lasts. Where the spalling is shallow and the brick is otherwise sound, turning the brick around and resetting it is sometimes an option.

What does efflorescence tell you?

It tells you water is moving through the wall and evaporating at the face, leaving dissolved salts behind as a white crust. The powder itself is harmless and washes off. What matters is the water source, because the same movement that carries salt out also breaks brick apart in a freeze. Sealing over efflorescence without fixing the leak traps the water.

Will you find matching brick?

Usually yes. St. Louis was built out of its own clay and the salvage yards here carry genuine local common brick from demolished buildings. We match size first, then color and texture, then hardness. A perfect match is rare on a weathered wall, so we place the closest units where they are most visible and the off ones in low corners.

Are stair-step cracks serious?

They mean something moved. A hairline stair-step that has not changed in years is often old settlement that stopped. A crack that is wider at one end, keeps opening, or lets daylight through needs a structural engineer to look at the footing before any brick goes back. We will tell you plainly when a job needs an engineer rather than a mason.

Can you match a decorative brick detail?

Often, yes. Corbelled cornices, dentil courses, segmental arches and rowlock sills are all repairable, and rebuilding them properly means laying the brick back in its original orientation. Cut and shaped units can be sourced or trimmed on site. Send photographs with your enquiry and we will tell you before the visit whether it is straightforward.

Brick Repair and Replacement in St. Louis, MO | Gateway Brick & Tuckpointing

Brick Repair and Replacement in St. Louis, MO

Brick replacement in St. Louis runs $12 to $28 per brick, with a minimum charge on small counts. We cut out the failed units without damaging their neighbors, set salvaged or matched brick in the same bond and orientation, and point the new work with a mix softer than the surrounding wall. First we find out why the face came off, because spalling is always a symptom.

Signs you need this

Brick faces have popped off and the raw, coarser interior is exposed

Chips of brick face are lying in the flower bed or on the porch roof

Stair-step cracks running diagonally through the joints

A straight horizontal crack a course or two above a window or door

Brick under a window sill or near a downspout looks eaten away

White crusty deposits keep returning on the same patch of wall

Reading the damage before touching a brick

Brick does not fail on its own. Something let water in and something else kept it there. Before we price replacement units we look for the source: open joints above the damage, a cracked sill, a downspout dumping against the wall, a parapet with no coping, a rusting lintel swelling behind the opening, or a grade that has been built up against the brick over a century of landscaping.

The pattern tells you a lot. Damage in a vertical band usually means a leaking gutter or valley above. Damage in a horizontal band below a sill means the sill is shedding water into the wall instead of past it. A patch low down that keeps returning after every wet spring is usually rising damp or a splash zone. Fix the source and the replacement brick lasts. Skip that step and you are paying us twice.

Why St. Louis brick spalls the way it does

Local clay fired in local kilns built most of this city. The common brick in a pre-1930 house is soft and porous by modern standards, and it was often laid with the hardest, best fired brick facing out and softer units behind. That outer skin is what protects the wall. Once water works behind it and freezes, the skin lifts off and the soft interior is exposed, which then absorbs water far faster and fails faster.

Two things accelerate it. First, freeze and thaw cycling. Our winters cross the freezing line back and forth through the season rather than settling, and each crossing works on the water already in the brick. Second, hard mortar. A portland-heavy mix is stronger and stiffer than soft common brick, so when the wall expands the mortar does not give and the brick face takes the load. That is why we will not repoint around new brick with the same mix a previous contractor used if that mix was the cause.

Cutting out and setting the replacement

The skill in this work is removing a failed brick without wrecking the three around it. We cut through the joints rather than the units, work the brick free in pieces where it is stuck, and clean the opening back to a solid bed. The replacement goes in on full mortar, in the same bond pattern, and in the same orientation. A rowlock sill brick laid flat, or a header laid as a stretcher, is visible from the street forever.

What we do about the water afterward

Replacement brick buys you nothing if the wall is still wet. Depending on what we find, the scope may include repointing above the repair, recasting a sill with a proper drip, adding a coping or flashing to a parapet, correcting a downspout, or replacing a lintel. We list each item separately on the estimate with a price against it, so you can see exactly what you are paying for and decide what happens this year.

How the work runs

Find the water

Spalled brick is the end of a chain that starts with water getting in. We trace it back to open joints, a bad sill, a leaking gutter, a failed parapet or a rusting lintel before quoting any brick.

Source the replacement brick

We match size, color, texture and hardness. Salvaged St. Louis common brick is usually the closest match for pre-1930 walls, and the salvage yards here hold real stock of it.

Cut out and reset

The failed unit is cut free through its joints so the brick above and beside it stays intact. The new brick goes in on a full bed, in the same bond and the same orientation as the original.

Point, cure and blend

New joints are packed and tooled to the existing profile, kept damp while they cure, then washed. We check the repair from the sidewalk, which is the distance people actually see it from.

What it typically costs

Job	Typical range
Spalled brick replacement, per brick Salvaged or matched brick, cut out and pointed in. Small counts carry a minimum charge	$12 to $28 per brick
Small patch, under 25 brick Covers setup, access and a mortar match for a single area	$550 to $1,400
Stair-step crack repair Cracked units cut out, joints raked and repointed. Structural movement is priced separately	$800 to $3,500
Rebuild a wall section Where the brick is loose or bulging and the section has to come down and go back up	$45 to $95 per sq ft
Brick veneer above a bay or porch roof Access and the condition of the flashing below drive this one	$1,200 to $4,800

Typical ranges for St. Louis and the surrounding area , reviewed September 2026. Every quote is written and fixed before work starts.