The University of Virginia Chapel was swathed in scaffolding for the new year. Facilities Management’s historic masons, specializing in historic preservation, have been working on repointing the ...

Brick houses are hard to damage. Anyone familiar with The Three Little Pigs knows that. Inevitably, however, there comes a time when the mortar between bricks begins to degrade. The process of repair, ...

We've all seen it: The brick or stone wall where the mortar is all powdery, cracked or non-existent. "Mortar can disintegrate over time because of weather as a result of the freeze-thaw cycles. The ...

The mortar joints between bricks and stones can become porous with age, allowing rainwater to penetrate to the inside. This can cause damp patches to appear on interior walls and ruin decorations. The ...

Q We have very active woodworm in an old property we have just bought. Is borax solution safe to treat it? We have no intention of using permethrin. I want to use the borax-based treatment on all the ...

Last week, I fielded no fewer than five phone calls from homeowner with the same grim news. They found it nearly impossible to get quotes from contractors to do fairly simple repairs. Each caller’s ...