Who we are

Aurora tuckpointing and Masonry has been servicing Aurora and the surrounding suburbs proudly.  We understand that you have several other choices when it comes to your masonry needs so our goal is to provide our customers the best in quality service while keeping deadlines and budgets in mind.

We are owners who take pride in the quality and workmanship we do, but we also enjoy getting to know our customers.  In fact, the greatest compliment we can receive is to get existing clients coming back to us for more servicing. Taking it another step further, we truly appreciate it when you trust us enough to recommend our services to your friends and family members.

Where we provide service

Although we are based in Aurora, we happily serve the surrounding suburbs and even have projects take us into the city of Chicago.  While we can’t possibly name out all the cities we serve, here are a few places that frequently get added to the books: Chicago, Elgin, Naperville, Wheaton, Bolingbrook, Orland Park, Joliet, Carol Stream, Downers Grove, Lombard, Romeoville, Oak Lawn, Yorkville, St. Charles, La Grange.  

This list is not all-encompassing so please give us a call to discuss your needs and we’ll do our absolute best to accommodate.  Your flexibility with service dates is greatly appreciated as well!

Quality of Workmanship

In our point of view, there are two styles of contractors that do the type of work we do.  The first are those that do the bare-bones minimum as quickly as possible so that they can get paid, but at your expense.  The job is typically of very poor quality, the material used is of very poor quality, and before you know it, you’ll find yourself calling them again to fix the poor work they did previously.

The second style are those that take pride in the quality workmanship they offer.  This is us. We DO NOT cut corners and DO NOT skip steps just to move quickly to the next project.  We believe that is extreme short sightedness, a disservice to our customers, and a very poor business decision.

Instead, we want you to feel comfortable choosing us today and also down the road for future work.  We believe quality work does not go unnoticed, and with the feedback we get from our clients, they are happy to recommend our services to their nearest friends and relatives.

We stand behind our customer service, and our work, so if there is something that you are unclear about, or have questions on, please get in touch with us and we’d be happy to address your questions or concerns.

Services We Provide

We focus on almost anything that is masonry related.  From the smallest of residential projects to the much larger commercial projects, we have the experience and know-how to tackle any challenges we may encounter head on.   

Here are a few scenarios that we would be happy to help with:

Brickwork, tuckpointing, chimney repair, masonry repair, glass blocks, concrete work, terra cotta, natural stone, and cultured stone.

We’d love to be able to help with your new project, get in touch with one of your staff members today and we can work up a quote for you, or we can gladly answer any questions you may have for us.

What is Tuckpointing?

Tuckpointing is a process that repairs the worn out mortar between the bricks of your house or business.  It is the restoration aspect of the masonry trade, but just be aware that not every masonry contractor does tuckpointing.  When contacting a masonry company, you’ll want to specifically ask if this is a service they provide.

So how do you know if you need new tuckpointing or not?  Well fortunately it’s fairly easy to tell with the naked eye.  You’ll want to see if the mortar between the bricks has eroded away with time, this often occurs because of natural elements such as wind, rain, sleet and snow or the brushing of trees as an example.  It will be especially noticeable because you can practically stick your entire finger tip between two bricks.

The danger caused by eroded mortar is that water can collect between the bricks causing an acceleration in eroding to occur.  This can also make it easier for bricks to crack entirely from one end to another. Once this happens, ice can cause the crack to expand much more rapidly and the brick will eventually need to be chiseled away and replaced with a new one.

Needless to say, this is something that can be avoided through monitoring and routine maintenance.  Where there is one crack, there are usually others that follow.

Steps To Tuckpointing Your Home or Business

Tuckpointing is an art that requires experience and attention to detail but the steps in getting it accomplished are straightforward:

Remove the existing joints - this is the mortar between the bricks themselves.  In this step we typically use one of three tools - a grinder, saw or chisel and hammer (sometimes we use a combination of the three).  

This process leaves behind a lot of dust so we’ll use a blower to get rid of the dust until about an inch of mortar has been removed.  We are extremely careful not to crack bricks as we do not want to replace bricks that are currently in tact.

Replace the joints - using a mortar bag, which looks extremely similar to an icing bag used for cakes, we squeeze the mortar between the bricks to fill what was removed in the previous step.  We strategically do this in phases to prevent unnecessary drying of the mortar because we still have to shape and mold it the way we want it.

We wait - the mortar is given time to set but there are several factors that determine how quickly this happens, examples of these factors are the type of brick that is currently there (whether clay or concrete), the climate, and the moisture content the bricks have absorbed over time.  

The finish - the mortar that was injected between the bricks needs to be given an aesthetic finish or it will look poorly done and sloppy.  There are several finishing patterns that can be applied but the most common is the concave, followed by the V shape and flush finish.

Cleaning - once we’ve achieved the look we are after, the bricks get brushed off with a mason’s brush and the joints are given time to harden.

Contacting us

We’d be happy to assist in any of your masonry needs so please feel free to reach out to us over the phone or through one of the other methods of contact found on this page.  We’ll make sure to get all your questions answered and take the next steps, should it make sense to do so.

Working with us is very easy and you’ll find that our rates are extremely fair.  Call us today!