Cracks bother a lot of people. I’m not talking about poor fitting jeans or suspicious white powder. Ordinary cracks. They can be found everywhere you look and frequently along brick walls, curbs, sidewalks, in plaster and so on. Some cracks warrant professional attention, in the form of a structural engineer. Home Inspectors also can identify problem cracks, but aren’t licensed to provide a solution. Despite this, most cracks are superficial.
In a futile attempt to either prevent further cracking or to improve aesthetics, cracks are frequently patched. Usually the patching looks worse; we’ve all seen mismatched mortar joints or replaced curb.
Pointing up brick (patching the mortar joint) will NEVER stop cracking. Control joints and expansion joints are the real solution and without these the cracks will just reappear. Unfortunately, in the case of brick, water may infiltrate the opening and cause efflorescence or calcite to form patches of chalky white over sections of brick. A better solution would be to install a clear silicone caulk, especially if the crack continues through the brick and doesn’t simply follow the mortar joints.
The familiar mismatching curb occurs when the Builder’s Rep, usually an engineer, forces the contractor to replace the “defective” curb. Replacing curb in my opinion is unsightly. Yes, water infiltration can wreak havoc in the aggregate subbase underneath the street, and produce cracks in the asphalt. The term alligatoring is used to describe sections of road with numerous cracks, which resemble alligator skin. It is very difficult to know if water infiltration is a problem until it’s a problem. That is the worst possible scenario, but most of the time leaving the offending curb does no damage.
In my opinion, caulk should be used wherever possible. Silicone is best, urethane being the cheaper second alternative. Either way, you will be astonished at how expensive caulking can be. Joint preparation is vital. If the edges are not uniform and clean, the caulk will fail and you’ll have to pay a second time. Ensure that a foam backer rod is placed in the joint before caulking so that the caulk will have 3 sides of adhesion. True professional caulkers are hard to find, but choosing anybody else maybe more expensive in the long run and look bad forever.
