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Hi Damion Rutherford Here With JES, with another episode of Chalkboard Chat. 0:00:10.569,0:00:15.070 Where we answer your questions about foundation repair, crawl space repairs, and basement 0:00:15.070,0:00:16.049 Waterproofing. 0:00:16.049,0:00:21.129 Today's question comes from, somebody I don't know their name, but they're from Richmond, VA. 0:00:21.129,0:00:25.099 And They Ask "Why Can't I Just Patch The Cracks In My brick House?". 0:00:25.099,0:00:27.930 Well, that's a great question my unnamed friend. 0:00:27.930,0:00:32.560 It's a common question that many homeowners ask us. Maybe you've seen something 0:00:32.560,0:00:36.860 like this in your home where there's cracks developing in the outside of the home in the brick. 0:00:36.860,0:00:40.960 Or gaps forming along the mortar between the bricks. 0:00:40.960,0:00:45.560 And the question is, why can't I just patch that? The answer is that, actually, you can patch 0:00:45.560,0:00:47.920 You can go down to your local hardware store, 0:00:47.920,0:00:51.450 buy some cement and fill the cracks in. 0:00:51.450,0:00:55.770 You can see like this homeowner here has done. A lot of times when you do that you'll see 0:00:55.770,0:00:57.940 that it's pretty unsightly, you can see this homeowner 0:00:57.940,0:01:02.370 actually went through the process of repointing all of the brick around their home there. 0:01:02.370,0:01:05.790 So, you can do that, but that's not the issue. The pro0blem is that, 0:01:05.790,0:01:08.270 you're not addressing the problem. 0:01:08.270,0:01:13.580 What you have to ask yourself is "Why Did The Bricks Crack To Begin With?". 0:01:13.580,0:01:18.610 was it from poor construction for the use OK. Was it from poor construction? Did they use bad mortar, or were there construction 0:01:18.610,0:01:19.920 Faults? 0:01:19.920,0:01:23.330 Is it a common settlement problem? is there movement in the structure? (which is the most 0:01:23.330,0:01:27.830 common answer) that's causing the brick to separate and the mortar to crack. 0:01:27.830,0:01:30.190 Or is it maybe just something else? 0:01:30.190,0:01:34.780 And that's what you want to ask yourself. And, you know, if you go ahead and try to patch the 0:01:34.780,0:01:36.900 cracks without addressing the source, 0:01:36.900,0:01:40.050 you'll find your efforts to be in vain. You'll see in this picture the 0:01:40.050,0:01:44.350 homeowner tried to patch the crack, and the cracks have started to open up again. 0:01:44.350,0:01:49.869 A good common sign that you have a true settlement issue because the gaps are opening even more. 0:01:49.869,0:01:55.980 Here's another good example where you can see the mortar is split right in half from the settlement issues. 0:01:55.980,0:02:00.500 And, yet again (once again), another sign where someone has patched 0:02:00.500,0:02:04.490 the crack in the brick and it's starting to fail again. So there is a good recommendation. 0:02:04.490,0:02:09.649 Rather than just patching the crack, the best answer is to find the source of the problem. What's causing 0:02:09.649,0:02:11.419 the crack to occur, 0:02:11.419,0:02:14.900 Then you can address what can be done to solve the problem. 0:02:14.900,0:02:19.980 A professional engineer can do this for you, they charge a fee to do a thorough evaluation. 0:02:19.980,0:02:24.439 Another option is to contact a local foundation repair contractor, 0:02:24.439,0:02:28.039 like ourselves here at JES, where we do these inspections free of charge to find out what's causing 0:02:28.039,0:02:29.989 The problem and why. 0:02:29.989,0:02:32.929 And find out what options are available that either the homeowner themselves can do to correct the 0:02:32.929,0:02:33.739 problem 0:02:33.739,0:02:37.320 Or, if a professional remedy is needed, what we can do to help out. 0:02:37.320,0:02:41.930 So hopefully that answers your question my unnamed friend. Hopefully you've found this information helpful. 0:02:41.930,0:02:43.889 if you did, do me a favor 0:02:43.889,0:02:47.269 And click on the “like” button below the video. I'd really appreciate it. It lets me know that 0:02:47.269,0:02:49.049 you really like the information. 0:02:49.049,0:02:53.579 If you have any comments or feedback about what we talked about in this video 0:02:53.579,0:02:57.449 or if you have a question of your own, feel free to leave it as a comment in this 0:02:57.449,0:03:01.549 Video, or you can post a comment right on our YouTube channel. 0:03:01.549,0:03:07.209 So that is it for today. This is Damion Rutherford with JES, with another episode of Chalkboard Chat and
we'll see you next time!