With the stormy months rolling in, people will start worrying about hail damage once more. It wrecks car windows and roofs. But for commercial buildings, hail can cause a significant amount of damage that you may not see until it’s too late. In this post, we’ll talk about how hail damage can result in even…

Our work restoring buildings means that we see a lot of the effects of water damage—sometimes well after the water damage has already occurred. When water infiltrates your masonry, time is of the essence. The longer a leak lasts, the more damage it does. If you see any of these signs of a leak, you…

No masonry structure can last forever without regular maintenance. Tuckpointing commercial buildings is one of the projects we do most frequently. We get a lot of questions about this job, so we wrote this post to give you the answers to some of the most common ones. Why is tuckpointing important? While the masonry of…

Have you ever noticed a chalky white powder on the walls of your building? No, it’s nothing nefarious. You’re seeing efflorescence, an issue that is common with any type of masonry. This substance is the result of moisture reacting with minerals in the masonry. Moisture moves through the porous masonry and leaves deposits on the…

When we talk about the damage that water can do to your building, rust jacking is the most severe outcome in regard to steel reinforced structures. Rust jacking is what happens when a little water problem becomes an urgent structural problem that you cannot ignore. In this post, we’re going to talk about what rust…

Worn or damaged joints are a problem for any masonry structure, from the modern EIFS façade to the brick walls of a historic townhouse. If left unrepaired, cracked mortar will lead to more severe damage that ends up costing more to repair down the line. The mechanics of mortar deterioration During spring, the walls of…

Every day, millions of Americans walk to their cars past signs of decaying concrete in the parking structures that they use. For building owners, these wounds are a sign that it may be time to make repairs. Parking garages are subject to a variety of stresses that wear on concrete over time. Along with seismic…

Did you know that in 1911, Oklahoma experienced record high and low temperatures in the same day? That was the Great Blue Norther of November 11, and today our state continues to experience massive temperature swings. Oklahoma typically experiences 40- to 50-degree temperature swings between seasons. In our industry we talk about thermocycles, which occur…

We often get calls from building owners or managers when the masonry veneer of their building has become cracked or is crumbling. That poses a structural risk to the rest of the masonry, as I’ll explain. But it’s also unsightly and usually unacceptable to any building occupant. This is particularly problematic with retail and food…