The grout between the bricks near my front steps is crumbling, but the bricks themselves seem fine. What usually has to be done in a situation like that?
Answer
What you’re describing is actually mortar, not grout, but people mix those terms up all the time. Front step areas take a lot of moisture and foot traffic, which wears mortar down faster. Also snow, ice, salt & shoveling in the winter is a lot of abuse year after year. But if the bricks managed to remain solid, the repair focuses on replacing just the deteriorated mortar. This is called tuckpointing. It’s the process of removing old bad mortar & replacing with new mortar. There’s a few more steps to the process but that’s the short version. This will also help prevent the bricks from loosening later and causing damage to the bricks themselves. It’s a very common repair in Pleasant Ridge.
