If you own one of Hinsdale's older brick homes — and there are plenty of them, from the prewar foursquares near Robbins Park to the mid-century ranches on the south side of town — the brick itself will almost always outlast the mortar holding it together. Mortar is the sacrificial layer. It is designed to weather, crack and erode so the brick doesn't have to. Tuckpointing is simply the process of grinding out that tired mortar and packing in fresh material.
The tricky part is knowing when. People searching for tuckpointing near me Hinsdale usually do it after they've already noticed a problem, but the early signs are subtle. Here's what to watch for before a small repair becomes a wall rebuild.
The five-minute screwdriver test
You don't need special tools. Take a flat-head screwdriver and drag the tip along a mortar joint, pressing with light to moderate pressure. Healthy mortar feels like dragging metal across stone — firm, with almost no give. If the joint crumbles, flakes away in sandy bits, or you can dig out a quarter inch without much effort, that section is failing. Check a few spots on each elevation, especially the north and west walls that take the brunt of our weather.
Warning signs you can see from the ground
- Receding joints. When the mortar sits noticeably deeper than the face of the brick, water has somewhere to pool and freeze.
- Hairline gaps and cracks. Vertical cracks that run across several courses of brick can signal movement, not just weathering — worth a closer look.
- White, chalky staining (efflorescence). Those salty deposits mean water is moving through the masonry and evaporating on the surface.
- Spalling brick. When the face of a brick pops, flakes or crumbles, water has usually gotten in behind it and frozen. Spalling brick often points to mortar that failed first.
- Plants and moss in the joints. If something is growing out of your wall, the joint is holding moisture it shouldn't.
Catch failing mortar early and tuckpointing is a maintenance item. Ignore it for a decade and water gets into the wall, damages brick, and you're looking at replacement — a much bigger job.
Why Hinsdale homes are especially prone to it
Two reasons. First, age: a lot of housing stock here predates 1960, and original mortar from that era is often softer lime-based mix that has simply done its job for a long time. Second, climate. The freeze–thaw swings of a Chicago-area winter are brutal on masonry. Water seeps into a tired joint, freezes, expands, and pries the joint apart a fraction at a time. Repeat that a few hundred times a season and you understand why west-facing walls age fastest.
Can you DIY it?
Honestly, small touch-ups on a low garden wall are within reach for a confident DIYer. But matching the color, texture and — critically — the hardness of historic mortar is a real skill. Use a modern mortar that's harder than the brick and you can actually accelerate spalling, because the brick becomes the soft material that gives way. On anything above eye level or on the house itself, this is a job worth handing to someone who does it daily. Established crews like RJ Tuckpointing will color-match the existing joints and tool them to match the original profile, which is the difference between a repair that disappears and one that looks like a patch.
The bottom line
Walk your walls once a season, screwdriver in hand. If you find soft, receding or cracking joints — especially paired with any spalling brick — get an assessment before the next deep freeze. Mortar is cheap. Brick is not.