Your stone chimney, repaired and repointed in Clear Lake

Matching the sand in the old mortar

Sand is the largest ingredient in mortar by volume, and the brief notes that the color and texture of new mortar will usually fall into place if the sand is matched successfully.

We look at the old joints closely, sometimes breaking off a sample to see the sand grains. Then we compare sands and test batches until the match is close. That extra care at the start keeps the repair from reading as a patch for years afterward.

Resetting a loose stone

A loose stone comes out carefully, by hand, without prying against its neighbors. The old mortar is cleaned off the stone's back and the bed it came from, down to sound material.

Then the stone goes back with fresh mortar filling the whole bed, pressed in until mortar squeezes out around its edges, and the joints are tooled to match. Before any of that, we find out why it loosened, since a reset over the same water problem will not hold.

• Removed by hand, neighbors protected
• Old mortar cleaned off stone and bed
• Reset with full mortar coverage
• Joints tooled to the existing profile

Fieldstone and rubble stonework

Fieldstone chimneys use irregular stones with wide, uneven joints. Those wide joints are where mortar loss shows first and where water gets in.

Wide stone joints, the preservation brief notes, can call for raking several inches back. We rake out to sound mortar, fill the deep joints in layers and finish them to the existing profile. Small pinning stones that have fallen out of wide joints are reset as part of the work.

Why we do not pressure wash stone chimneys

High pressure water drives water deep into joints, erodes mortar and can scar softer stone. One manufactured stone maker rules out power washing and sandblasting on its product.

If a stone chimney has been pressure washed in the past, we look for eroded joints and damaged faces during the inspection. Cleaning we do is done by hand with low-pressure rinsing, so the stone and joints keep their surfaces.

Water stains inside near a stone chimney

Stains on a ceiling or wall beside a stone chimney can come from the flashing, the cap, open joints or water behind veneer. The stain inside does not always sit directly below the entry point.

We check the outside of the chimney from the roof and the base, and the attic where it is accessible, to find the path. Leak repairs that are not stone work, such as flashing or cap work, are quoted on their own lines.