Tuckpointing is the process of cutting out deteriorated mortar from brick joints – typically to a depth of about 3/4″ to 1″ – and packing in fresh mortar matched to the original in color, texture, and composition. It’s the most routine maintenance item on a Chicago commercial building, and the one most often deferred until it’s no longer routine.

For Chicago common brick buildings, we use lime-putty or NHL (natural hydraulic lime) mortar matched to the original construction. For newer buildings with hard face brick or concrete masonry, we use portland-based mortar formulated for the substrate. Mortar matching determines whether the repair lasts 20 years or causes new damage within five.

We recommend a facade inspection every five to seven years for most Chicago commercial buildings. We’ll give you an honest read on what needs to happen now versus what can wait, and we’ll organize the work by urgency.

Full masonry restoration addresses structural issues that routine tuckpointing can’t fix: crumbling brick sections, failed wall ties, bowing facades, and compromised parapets. Chicago’s older commercial building stock – especially buildings from the 1880s through the 1930s – regularly needs restoration-level work, not maintenance-level work.

Arrow’s crews rebuild failed brick sections, replace compromised wall systems, and stabilize facades throughout Chicago. We’ve worked on 19th-century commercial storefronts in Pilsen and water-damaged residential towers on the North Shore. Restoration work often means coordinating with structural engineers or preservation consultants. We handle that too.

When individual bricks fail – spalling, cracking, displacement, bowing – they need replacement, not repointing. Spalling (the brick face peeling or popping off) is common in Chicago common brick buildings and almost always traces back to water infiltration combined with freeze-thaw cycling. Once it starts it accelerates. A spalling brick exposes softer interior material to direct weather, which causes more spalling.

Arrow replaces individual brick units, patches small sections, and does full brick panel replacement where damage is extensive. We source replacement brick matched to your existing material in size and color. We also fix whatever let the water in – failed mortar, cracked sills, broken caulk joints. Replacing brick without addressing the water source is money spent twice.

Chicago has a lot of limestone, greystone, and natural stone construction. The classic greystone two-flat and three-flat. Indiana limestone on Loop office buildings and civic structures. Prairie-style commercial buildings with elaborate stone ornament. All of it ages.

Stone doesn’t behave like brick. Limestone weathers differently depending on orientation (east and south faces go fastest), reacts differently to water, and needs different repair approaches – consolidants, stone patching compounds, caulking at movement joints, and selective unit replacement. Arrow restores limestone sills, copings, cornices, and facade panels throughout Chicago. We also work on brownstone, sandstone, and cultured stone. Historically designated buildings require specific approved materials – we work within those constraints.

A lintel is the structural member spanning the top of a window or door opening that carries the masonry above it. In Chicago’s older commercial buildings, they’re almost always steel angle, and steel rusts. As a lintel corrodes and expands, it cracks and displaces the brick above the opening. You’ll see it as stair-step cracking at the upper corners of windows, or as brick that looks pushed outward above a storefront.

Rusted or deflected lintels are among the most common Chicago building code violations we encounter, and the most urgent – a failing lintel is a falling hazard. Arrow replaces lintels on commercial buildings across Chicago, cutting out the failed steel, supporting the masonry, installing new galvanized or stainless angle, and rebuilding the brick above. We waterproof the lintel shelf on the way out to prevent the same failure from recurring. If your building has stair-step cracking at window corners, get it looked at.

Post-WWII commercial construction in Chicago commonly used panel brick – thin brick veneer, typically 2-5/8″ thick, applied over a concrete or steel structural frame. These buildings are common throughout Chicago’s commercial corridors from the 1950s through the 1980s. Panel brick fails differently than traditional masonry: veneer tie failure, panel joint deterioration, delamination, and water infiltration at panel-to-panel transitions.

Arrow performs spot repairs on individual panels, replaces full panel sections, and addresses the joint systems between panels. Panel brick repair requires understanding the veneer tie system and the backup wall. You can’t treat it like traditional masonry.

Chimneys take more abuse than any other masonry element on a building. They project above the roofline, receive weather from all sides, and cycle thermally between interior heat and exterior cold. In Chicago that means faster deterioration than wall masonry. Arrow repoints and rebuilds chimneys on commercial properties throughout the city. We address crown failures, spalling brick on exposed shafts, failed flashing at the roof intersection, and full chimney rebuilds where deterioration has gone too far for repair.

Not every joint in a commercial facade should have mortar in it. Control joints, expansion joints, window perimeter joints, and transitions between different materials need a flexible sealant. In Chicago, where exterior temperatures swing more than 100 degrees between summer and winter, those joints move constantly. Mortar in a movement joint cracks and fails within a season or two.

Arrow installs and replaces commercial-grade caulking throughout Chicago. We use high-performance silicone and polyurethane sealants suited to the joint type and substrate, with joints properly cleaned and fitted with backer rod before application. Caulking at window and curtainwall perimeters is often the last barrier against water infiltration. Consumer-grade product applied without prep fails fast.

After masonry repairs, penetrating waterproofers protect the restored surface from future water infiltration. Arrow applies silane/siloxane water repellents – the right product for Chicago’s brick, limestone, and concrete block – on commercial facades following restoration and tuckpointing work. They don’t change the appearance of the masonry but reduce water absorption and extend the maintenance cycle.

Waterproofing won’t seal open mortar joints or cracked brick on its own. Applied to sound masonry after proper repair, it extends the life of that work considerably.

Chicago’s urban environment puts decades of grime, diesel soot, biological growth, and efflorescence on masonry facades. Professional washing restores appearance, removes efflorescence before it causes permanent staining, and prepares surfaces for waterproofing or sealant application.

High pressure on soft masonry – Chicago common brick, limestone – causes irreversible surface erosion. Arrow uses the lowest effective pressure combined with appropriate cleaners for the substrate. We typically combine power washing with pre-bid facade inspection or post-repair cleanup.