Hello,
I recently bought a 72-year-old brick house in the St. Louis area. During the inspection process, it was noted that the house had external joint deterioration and would be in need of tuckpointing. From what I hear, tuckpointing is very expensive and my wife and I may be moving on to a new city in the next couple years.
My questions:
1) What are the risks of not tuckpointing (and placing the burden on the next owner)?
2) The house is 2-story, 2300 sq. ft. (floor). What would be the approximate cost of tuckpointing? You can assume that the brick is easily accessible in most places and the mortar is pretty flaky (i.e. you can scrape it out with a screwdriver).
3) Finally, is there anyway to tell if the deteriorating joints are causing (structural) problems? We haven't noticed any water in the house or significant external cracks. Some walls inside have recent, small cracks but this could be normal for such an old house I think...
Any advice would really be appreciated as this is such a major decision for us.
Thanks
I recently bought a 72-year-old brick house in the St. Louis area. During the inspection process, it was noted that the house had external joint deterioration and would be in need of tuckpointing. From what I hear, tuckpointing is very expensive and my wife and I may be moving on to a new city in the next couple years.
My questions:
1) What are the risks of not tuckpointing (and placing the burden on the next owner)?
2) The house is 2-story, 2300 sq. ft. (floor). What would be the approximate cost of tuckpointing? You can assume that the brick is easily accessible in most places and the mortar is pretty flaky (i.e. you can scrape it out with a screwdriver).
3) Finally, is there anyway to tell if the deteriorating joints are causing (structural) problems? We haven't noticed any water in the house or significant external cracks. Some walls inside have recent, small cracks but this could be normal for such an old house I think...
Any advice would really be appreciated as this is such a major decision for us.
Thanks