Resealing your expansion joint in your brick veneer
I constantly find myself completing small jobs around the house and I thought it would be important to start sharing methods of doing minor repairs with my past, present and future clients. Today we are discussing the oddly cut vertical line seen out side of most of our homes in the brick veneer as seen in the pictures below. This is call an "expansion joint" it is intended to help give pressure relief to the walls of you brick veneer in the summer months when they expand and the winter months when they contract.
Overtime the silicone in the expansion joints 8-10years begins to fall apart and crack. This is often an over looked area of repair as many home owners don't realize this can allow the elements to enter the wall cavity behind the brick veneer itself. I notice our own expansion joint was begin to degrade and it was obvious with a hard enough rain water would be able to get behind the wall. Below are a few items needed.
A backer rod allows you to lay a bead of silicone caulk into the expansion joint without having to make it 2 inches thick to fill the cavity it also helps act as installation in case your silicone down the road begins to fail.
I ended up selecting non-paintable 100% Silicone by GE as it has up to 50% stretch. This is important as many other types of caulk under severe weather condition and/or expansion/contraction can crack.
Note: It doesn't have to be a perfect match to your brick in this case I used brown silicone with red brick. Within a year it will easily blemish and tone down to better match the brick.
The scrap out the exsisting silicone I used a flat head screw driver, razor knife, hammer, pillars and chisel. It would take a lot of crack or chip away brick so no worries just make sure you focus on only knocking out the exsisting silicone and not motar.
Steps to success:
1. Knock out all the exsisting caulk by running a razordown both size of the expansion joint to help separate the caulk from brick. If the caulk is to hard use a large chisel and follow the entire length of the joint from top to bottom. Once complete use the pliers to granb the top or bottom of the exsisting bead and pull. In most cases if old and weak the entire strip should pull out very easily.
2. Prep the area: Make sure you take a brush acrossed the joint to ensure all lose material is removed.
3. Backer rod installation: I used the end of a small plastic spoon to help push the backer rod into the void make sure your backer rod is inlayed by 1/2.
4. Re-caulking joint: I would recommend starting from top to bottom in a smooth transition. I personally used my finger after I completed the entire bead to go back over and smooth the access. It is important you remember not to apply to much pressure as it with smuge onto the brick and make a mess. Smoothing out the caulk is more for cosmetics than anything else.
Here is the final pictures of my own handywork. Total project took about an hour and 2 tubs of caulk $7.99ea , 2 bags of backer rod $5.99ea = $27.96
Overtime the silicone in the expansion joints 8-10years begins to fall apart and crack. This is often an over looked area of repair as many home owners don't realize this can allow the elements to enter the wall cavity behind the brick veneer itself. I notice our own expansion joint was begin to degrade and it was obvious with a hard enough rain water would be able to get behind the wall. Below are a few items needed.
Note: It doesn't have to be a perfect match to your brick in this case I used brown silicone with red brick. Within a year it will easily blemish and tone down to better match the brick.
The scrap out the exsisting silicone I used a flat head screw driver, razor knife, hammer, pillars and chisel. It would take a lot of crack or chip away brick so no worries just make sure you focus on only knocking out the exsisting silicone and not motar.
Steps to success:
1. Knock out all the exsisting caulk by running a razordown both size of the expansion joint to help separate the caulk from brick. If the caulk is to hard use a large chisel and follow the entire length of the joint from top to bottom. Once complete use the pliers to granb the top or bottom of the exsisting bead and pull. In most cases if old and weak the entire strip should pull out very easily.
2. Prep the area: Make sure you take a brush acrossed the joint to ensure all lose material is removed.
3. Backer rod installation: I used the end of a small plastic spoon to help push the backer rod into the void make sure your backer rod is inlayed by 1/2.
4. Re-caulking joint: I would recommend starting from top to bottom in a smooth transition. I personally used my finger after I completed the entire bead to go back over and smooth the access. It is important you remember not to apply to much pressure as it with smuge onto the brick and make a mess. Smoothing out the caulk is more for cosmetics than anything else.
Here is the final pictures of my own handywork. Total project took about an hour and 2 tubs of caulk $7.99ea , 2 bags of backer rod $5.99ea = $27.96
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