Freeze-thaw damage is the physical breakdown of brick, stone, or mortar caused by water soaking into the material, freezing and expanding, then thawing and repeating the cycle until the expansion pressure cracks or pops pieces of the material apart.
Brick, stone, and mortar all have small pores and hairline cracks that absorb water. When temperatures drop below freezing, that trapped water turns to ice and expands, and because ice takes up more space than liquid water, the expansion pushes outward against the surrounding material with enough force to crack it. A single freeze doesn't do much damage, but the Blue Ridge foothills go through dozens of freeze-thaw cycles every winter, and each one widens the damage a little more.
This is why the material matters as much as the workmanship: brick rated for severe weather exposure and mortar mixed for the job resist freeze-thaw damage far better than standard-grade material or the wrong mortar type. It's also why footings have to go below the frost line, since ground that freezes and thaws repeatedly heaves and shifts whatever is sitting on top of it, and a foundation that moves every winter will crack the masonry above it no matter how well that masonry was built.
More masonry vocabulary from the glossary.
The services where this term comes up.
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