Why do cracks keep coming back in the mortar between the bricks on my porch after being repaired? I put some mortar in the cracks myself but the mortar I put in either cracks or falls out again…what am I doing wrong?
Answer
You’re not fixing the problem, you’re just covering it up. If the original mortar is already failing, packing a little new mortar into the surface won’t bond properly, so it either cracks again or pops right back out.
On top of that, if the joints weren’t ground out or properly prepared before you added new mortar so it has nothing solid to grab onto. We’ve seen this a lot in Royal Oak. Porches take a beating from weather and movement, and once that cycle starts, surface fixes don’t hold.
The right way to do it is to grind out the joints to a proper depth, remove all the loose material & clean it properly, and then repack the new mortar correctly, as well as tool it out at the right time or you’ll end up with messy smears all over. If you keep doing what you’ve been doing, you’ll keep chasing the same cracks over and over. We know people like to DIY projects at home but maybe masonry is something you might want to consider letting a professional take a look at it for you?
