I have a brick home and I am seeing a lot of spots that are missing mortar. It was not obvious at first, but we have had a bit of an ant problem and I tried to figure out where they are coming in from and that is how I started to discover lots of holes. We can not really offord to have the house repointed right now, but would like to stop the bugs and I am also thinking it will be good for winter coming up to fill these holes up. Is there anything I could use, like masonry caulk, that would be effective but not mess things up for when we do want to have the tuckpointing done? Should I just use some mortar instead, even though the bond will not be as good without properly clearing away old mortar?
What would be the best tuck pointing temporary alternative
caulkcaulkingexteriormasonrymortar
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Best Answer
It sounds like you're asking how to apply a temporary fix to missing mortar. Honestly, filling in the holes is already 50% of the work. You might as well clean out the failing mortar first and do the job right.
Proper tuck point repair does not require significant skill or investment:
But if you really want to skimp on the job, you could skip removing the old mortar and just add new mortar to the major holes. Then when you're ready you can cut out problem mortar as described above.