Pointing (Tuckpointing)

Category: infrastructure

The process of scraping out deteriorated mortar joints and packing them with fresh mortar to seal a wall.

Over decades, wind, rain, and building movement grind down mortar joints. Pointing requires routing out the crumbling joint lines back to a depth of roughly twice the joint width, then tightly packing fresh, compatible mortar in dense layers to restore the weather boundary.

Common Examples

• The preservation firm was contracted to execute a full historical tuckpointing sweep across the seventy-year-old brick chapel facade.
• Always use a soft mortar mix matching historical benchmarks when pointing old walls to avoid transferring crushing forces onto vintage units.