How to Identify Common Signs of Damage in Your Brickwork

1. Cracks in the Bricks or Mortar

Cracks are the most common and most visible sign of brick damage, and they appear in two distinct locations - in the brick units themselves, or along the mortar joints between them. Where a crack appears and how it's oriented both provide information about what's causing it.

Common Causes:

Foundation movement or settling creates stress that masonry walls express as cracking - often diagonal or stair-step cracks that follow the mortar joints. Freeze-thaw cycling drives expansion and contraction that opens hairline cracks over time, particularly in older brick with higher water absorption. Moisture infiltration accelerates the process - water that enters a hairline crack freezes, expands, and widens the crack with each cycle.

What to Do:

Hairline cracks in mortar joints are a maintenance issue addressable through repointing. Cracks that are widening, recurring after repair, or appearing in patterns that suggest structural movement are a different matter and warrant professional assessment before any repair work begins. Keep in mind that different brick types respond differently to damage - our guide on Understanding the Different Types of Brick & Their Repair Needsthe different types of brick and their repair needs covers what approach works best depending on what your structure is built with.

2. Bulging or Bowing Brick Walls

Bowing or bulging occurs when a section of the brick wall appears to be bending or buckling outward.

Common Causes:

Water trapped behind the wall assembly weakens the mortar bond and the brick-to-brick connection, eventually allowing hydrostatic pressure to push the wall face outward. Poor original construction - inadequate wall ties, weak mortar, insufficient lateral support - reduces the wall's ability to resist that pressure. Foundation movement is a common driver as well: when a foundation shifts, sinks, or experiences pressure from expansive soil or moisture, the structure above loses support, and the wall expresses that loss as stair-step cracking, vertical separation, or inward and outward bowing. For a detailed look at that relationship, our guide on Why Foundation Cracks Affect Your Brick Wallswhy foundation cracks affect your brick walls explains the connection.

What to Do:

Bowing walls should be treated as urgent. They may indicate The Signs of Structural Damage in Brickworkstructural damage that, if left unaddressed, continues to worsen and can become a safety hazard. Contact a masonry professional as soon as bulging is noticed - the underlying cause needs to be identified and addressed, not just the visible symptom.

3. Efflorescence

The white, chalky deposits that appear on brick surfaces are efflorescence - water-soluble salts drawn out of the masonry as moisture moves through it and evaporates at the surface.

Common Causes:

Efflorescence is the surface evidence of water movement within the wall assembly. It appears wherever moisture is consistently finding its way through the masonry - through deteriorated mortar joints, cracked brick faces, inadequate flashing, or poor drainage at the base of the wall. The salt deposit itself is what's left behind when the water carrying it evaporates.

What to Do:

Efflorescence can be cleaned from the surface, but cleaning it without addressing the moisture source means it returns. Persistent efflorescence is a diagnostic indicator - it tells you that water infiltration is occurring somewhere in the wall assembly and that the conditions driving it will eventually produce more serious damage if the source isn't found and corrected.

4. Spalling

Spalling is the progressive breakdown of the brick face - the surface chips, flakes, or breaks away, exposing the more porous interior of the brick to the same conditions that damaged the face.

Common Causes:

Michigan's freeze-thaw cycling is the primary driver of spalling on exterior masonry. Water absorbed into the brick freezes, expands by approximately nine percent, and exerts pressure on the surrounding material that the brick face eventually can't withstand. Low-absorption brick specified for cold climates handles this stress significantly better than general-purpose brick - lower-grade material with higher water absorption rates spalls faster and more extensively under the same conditions.

What to Do:

Spalled bricks that have lost significant face material need to be replaced - the exposed interior absorbs water faster than the original surface did, which accelerates the next round of freeze-thaw damage. Sealing the surrounding masonry and ensuring adequate drainage reduces moisture exposure going forward. Since Michigan winters are the primary contributor to this damage type, our guide on How to Prepare Your Brickwork for Winter Weatherhow to prepare your brickwork for winter weather covers the proactive steps worth taking before cold weather arrives.

5. Deteriorated or Crumbling Mortar

Mortar deteriorates faster than brick - it's the maintenance consumable in a masonry wall assembly, designed to be repointed periodically while the brick units themselves remain sound. When mortar joints crack, crumble, or erode below the surface of the brick face, the wall loses both structural cohesion and its primary defense against water infiltration.

Common Causes:

Aging is the baseline factor - mortar has a finite service life and degrades over time regardless of conditions. Moisture exposure accelerates that degradation significantly. Mortar that's regularly saturated - from inadequate drainage, failed flashing, or sustained weather exposure without protective sealing - deteriorates faster than mortar that dries out between weather events.

What to Do:

Understanding Mortar DeteriorationDeteriorated mortar requires repointing - the removal of degraded material to adequate depth and replacement with fresh mortar matched to the existing masonry in composition, color, and profile. Repointing done incorrectly - with incompatible mortar that's harder than the surrounding brick, or without removing enough of the deteriorated material - causes more damage than it fixes. Professional execution matters here.

6. Discoloration or Staining

Dark streaking, green biological growth, rust-colored staining, and general discoloration on brick surfaces are all diagnostic indicators - each type of staining points to a different underlying condition.

Common Causes:

Water staining from leaking gutters, downspouts, or failed flashing creates dark vertical streaks on brick faces - the stain tracks the path the water is taking down the wall. Green algae and mold establish on brick surfaces that stay damp - shaded areas with poor air circulation are particularly susceptible. Rust staining typically originates from embedded metal ties or anchors that are oxidizing.

What to Do:

Surface cleaning addresses the appearance, but the moisture source driving the staining needs to be identified and corrected or the staining returns. For extensive biological growth or staining that covers significant wall area, professional cleaning with appropriate masonry-safe products is more effective and less likely to damage the brick face than aggressive DIY pressure washing.

7. Gaps in the Brickwork

Visible separation between brick units, or gaps at the junction between brickwork and adjacent materials like window frames, door frames, or foundation elements, indicates movement in the wall assembly or the structure beneath it.

Common Causes:

Foundation movement is the most common driver of gapping - as the foundation shifts or settles unevenly, the masonry above moves with it and gaps open at the points of greatest stress. Weather exposure contributes over time as well, particularly at the interfaces between masonry and other materials that expand and contract at different rates.

What to Do:

Filling gaps without understanding what caused them is a temporary fix at best. Gaps that have opened due to foundation movement will reopen - or open elsewhere - until the foundation issue is addressed. A professional assessment of the full wall condition and foundation situation is the right starting point when gapping is noticed.

When to Call a Professional for Brick Repair

Early identification of brick damage is valuable - but the follow-through matters as much as the observation. Widening cracks, bowing walls, deteriorated mortar across significant wall area, and damage that continues to worsen between seasons are all situations that warrant professional assessment rather than DIY repair attempts. The risk with DIY masonry repair isn't just that the repair fails - it's that incorrect materials or techniques can cause damage that's more expensive to correct than the original problem would have been.

This is especially true for older and historic homes, where the masonry materials and construction methods require specific knowledge to repair appropriately. Our guide on Why Brick Repair on Historic Homes Need Special Attentionwhy brick repair on historic homes needs special attention covers what's at stake and what informed historic masonry repair looks like before any restoration work begins.

Routine inspection and timely professional repair is what keeps masonry structures safe, sound, and looking the way they're meant to. If you've noticed any of the symptoms described here - or simply want a professional evaluation of your masonry's current condition - Contact Bethel Custom Brickcontact us today to learn how our Expert Brick Repair Servicesexpert brick repair services restore structural integrity, address the underlying causes of damage, and protect your home from the conditions that would otherwise continue to work against it.