Tuckpointing is a decorative mortar finishing technique where a thin contrasting line is struck into a wider joint to mimic the look of fine, tightly spaced brickwork, distinct from the structural repair of repointing.
Tuckpointing is a decorative mortar finishing technique, originally developed in historic English brickwork, where a thin raised line of contrasting putty or mortar is struck into a wider joint to create the illusion of very fine, tightly spaced brick joints. It was a way to make common brick look like the more expensive, precisely cut brick of the era. True tuckpointing is cosmetic, it doesn't add structural strength to the wall, which is different from the structural repair that repointing performs.
In everyday use, most people call any mortar joint repair "tuckpointing," including work that's actually repointing, a structural fix rather than a decorative one. We're used to sorting that out on the first visit: if a customer asks us to tuckpoint a chimney and the mortar is actually crumbling or eroded, what the chimney needs is repointing, and getting the terminology straight up front helps set the right expectation for the scope of the work.
More masonry vocabulary from the glossary.
The services where this term comes up.
Chelo's Brick & Stone serves Hillsville, Galax, Wytheville, Fancy Gap, and Independence, VA. Call for a straight answer and a free on-site estimate.
