Historic masonry restoration
Fackrell Masonry and Construction restores historic brick and stone buildings across Southern Idaho, repointing, replacing failed brick, and rebuilding chimneys to match the original work. Past projects include the 1865 Miners Exchange in Idaho City and Hangar 208 at Mountain Home Air Force Base.
Old buildings are not complicated. They are just old. The Miners Exchange has been sitting on the boardwalk in Idaho City since 1865, and by the time we got there the entire brick building was about to fall apart. A stair-step crack ran clear across the wall under the porch, the brick had come apart around the old wood lintels, and the bottom courses had eroded back to nothing. All that building needed to last another 100 years was a few new bricks and mortar.
We did general repointing and brick repair on the Meridian Masonic Temple, and combed that building for damaged brick and mortar for about a week before we laid anything. On Hangar 208 at Mountain Home Air Force Base the requirement was short to write down and long to do: repair the damaged brick and repoint the mortar to match the original. On a building like that we sent a mortar sample to a laboratory to have its makeup determined, and mixed to that.
There is older work behind us too, from years before any of it made it onto a camera. Masonry construction of the Blackfoot McDonald's. Multiple United States Forest Service comfort stations. The stone restoration of the Oregon Short Line Railroad Depot, now the Idaho Potato Museum. I have no photos of those, so you will have to take my word for them.
What this covers
- Laboratory analysis of the original mortar on the rare job that warrants it, so the new mix is built on what the old one actually was
- Cutting out failed brick and patching in replacements that follow the size, shape and pattern of the original work
- Full repointing rather than spot repairs, so the joints read the same across the whole wall instead of in patches
- Mortar matched as closely as the materials allow. My dad and I developed our own sample set over years of trial and error and it gets us to about 75%. An exact match is not achievable on an old wall, and anyone who promises one has not done much of this.
- Rebuilding the top of a chimney or stack and then repointing the shaft below it, working down the way we did the stack on Hangar 208 where the access suited it
- Repairing stair-step cracks, eroded bottom courses, and brick that has come apart around old wood lintels
- Boom lift work for walls, parapets and stacks that a ladder will not reach
- Stone restoration as well as brick, including the stone on the Oregon Short Line Railroad Depot, now the Idaho Potato Museum
- Walking the whole building first to find every bad brick and open joint, not just the ones showing from the sidewalk
How to tell you need this
- A crack that steps down through the mortar joints in a staircase pattern
- The bottom courses of brick at the sidewalk have crumbled back until there is more air than brick
- Mortar joints you can rake out with a key, or joints washed out deep enough for moss to take hold
- Brick coming apart above a door or window. It may be the old lintel behind it and it may not. Either way it is worth having looked at
- Loose brick at the top of a chimney or parapet, or pieces that have already come off
Questions people ask
Do you restore historic buildings in Idaho City, Boise and the rest of Idaho?
Yes. Fackrell Masonry and Construction has restored the Miners Exchange in Idaho City, the Meridian Masonic Temple, and Hangar 208 at Mountain Home Air Force Base. The service area is all of Southern Idaho, between the Oregon and Wyoming borders, as far north as McCall, Stanley, New Meadows, and Salmon.
Can you match the mortar on an old brick building?
Not exactly, and anybody who promises an exact match has not done much of this. The wall you are matching has been weathering in the Idaho sun for decades, so it is not the color it was mixed as, and some of what went into it is not made or mined anymore. On a historic building we can send a sample to a laboratory to learn what the original actually was. Even then it is not a match - it is a mix built on the real thing. We get to about 75%, and the goal is a repair that reads as part of the wall rather than a patch.
Have you done restoration work on government or landmark buildings?
Yes. The chimney stack on Hangar 208 at Mountain Home Air Force Base was a historical restoration, where the requirement was to repair the damaged brick and repoint the mortar to match the original. The family has also built multiple United States Forest Service comfort stations and did the stone restoration of the Oregon Short Line Railroad Depot, now the Idaho Potato Museum.
Does the whole wall have to be repointed, or only the bad spots?
It depends on how much of the wall has gone. On the Miners Exchange we repointed the whole wall because the joints in between were not doing much holding either. On smaller jobs, customers often ask us to repoint the whole element anyway so the color comes out uniform instead of patchy. We will tell you which one your wall actually needs.
Will the new mortar and brick look obvious when you are done?
Fresh mortar looks loud against 150-year-old brick, and there is a stage in the middle of a job like this where the whole wall looks worse than when you started. That is normal. It settles down as it cures, and on a painted building like the Miners Exchange the paint goes on over the top of it.
Do you send the mortar off to a laboratory?
Only rarely, and I will usually talk you out of it. It runs into hundreds of dollars and belongs on a large historical job where the specification calls for it, which is why the Hangar 208 chimney got one. On a house the money is better spent on the work itself. And it is worth knowing what it buys you: the makeup of the old mortar, rather than somebody eyeballing it from the ground. Not an exact match, because there is no such thing. The sand came out of a riverbed a hundred years ago and you cannot go get it now.
Historical restoration projects
Real jobs, my own photos, and what the problem actually turned out to be.
Mountain Home Air Force Base, Hangar 208
Chimney restoration on Hangar 208 at Mountain Home Air Force Base: damaged brick replaced and the stack repointed with mortar mixed to a laboratory analysis of the original.
Meridian Masonic Temple
General repointing and brick repair on the Meridian Masonic Temple, with damaged brick and worn mortar found and replaced across the whole building.
Miners Exchange, Idaho City
Brick repair and full repointing on the 1865 Miners Exchange in Idaho City, replacing failed brick and mortar so the walls hold another century.
Often needed alongside
Tuckpointing and repointing
Cutting out failed mortar and replacing it, matched as closely as the materials allow.
Tuckpointing and repointing →Chimney repair
Rebuilds, caps, crowns, flue liner work and repointing.
Chimney repair →Commercial masonry
Storefronts, offices and public buildings, new and repaired.
Commercial masonry →