Brick Repair in Westmont, IL — Spalling & Cracks Fixed

A single flaking brick beside your Westmont front door does not look like an emergency. But that flaking — masons call it spalling — means water already found its way into the brick and froze there. On the older brick homes and bungalows around Westmont's historic downtown, one spalled brick is usually the first one you noticed, not the first one that failed. The wall is telling you where water is getting in.

Paul Lally's Masonry provides brick repair in Westmont, IL — cutting out spalled, cracked, and loose brick, matching replacements to your original masonry, and correcting the water source so the wall stays sound. We are family-owned and have served DuPage County and Chicagoland since 1988. For a free on-site estimate, call (708) 448-8866.

What "brick repair" covers

Brick repair is a range of work, not one task. On Westmont homes it usually means one of these:

• Replacing spalled brick — cutting out bricks whose faces have flaked off and setting matched replacements.
• Repairing cracked or split brick — often tied to movement or a failing lintel above.
• Resetting loose brick — brick that has worked free of the wall, common on porches, stoops, and chimney tops.
• Rebuilding damaged sections — where enough brick has failed that a patch will not hold.

The right repair depends entirely on why the brick failed, which is why we diagnose before we quote.

Why Westmont brick fails — and the DuPage freeze-thaw cycle

Most brick failure in Westmont traces back to water plus cold. Here is the sequence:

1. A mortar joint cracks or wears open — common on Westmont's older, soft-mortar walls.
2. Water seeps into the joint and into the porous brick behind it.
3. During a DuPage County freeze-thaw winter, that trapped water freezes and expands.
4. The expansion pushes the hardened outer face off the brick — spalling — or splits the brick outright.

Because Westmont's older homes were built with soft brick that absorbs more water, they are more vulnerable to this cycle than newer construction. The lesson we tell every homeowner: fixing the brick without fixing the water source just buys you a few years. We do both.

Matching brick on Westmont's older homes

This is where experience shows. The brick on a 1920s home near the rail line does not match anything at the modern supply yard. To repair it invisibly we:

• Source matched or reclaimed brick — size, color, and texture matched to your original, often salvaged brick for early Westmont homes.
• Match the mortar — color, sand, texture, and the correct type, so the joints around the new brick blend with the old.
• Tie into the coursing — setting replacements so the bond pattern and joint lines carry straight through the repair.

A repair that uses the wrong brick or a too-hard mortar announces itself from the curb — and the too-hard mortar will spall the next brick. Matching is not a finishing touch; it is the difference between a repair that lasts and one that fails.

Step cracks and movement — read the wall first

Not all brick damage is about water. Step cracks — cracks that climb the wall following the mortar joints in a stair-step pattern — usually mean something moved: foundation settling, a rusting or failing lintel over a window or door, or saturated soil. On older Westmont homes we trace the crack to its cause before touching the brick, because replacing brick over unresolved movement just lets the crack walk right back. Sometimes the real fix is the lintel or the water management, with the brick repair as the visible finish.

How we repair brick — step by step

1. Diagnose the cause. Water path, movement, or lintel — we find why the brick failed.
2. Cut out the failed brick. Damaged units are removed cleanly without disturbing the sound brick around them.
3. Prepare the opening. The cavity is cleaned and any underlying issue (mortar, flashing, lintel) is addressed.
4. Set matched brick. Replacements are laid in matched mortar, tied into the existing coursing and bond pattern.
5. Tool and clean. Joints are tooled to match your wall's profile and the face is cleaned down, so the repair disappears.

What drives the cost of brick repair in Westmont

We never quote a flat rate sight unseen. The factors that move a brick-repair estimate are:

• How many bricks have failed — a handful on a stoop versus a full elevation.
• Why they failed — a simple spall versus a movement or lintel problem that has to be corrected first.
• Matching difficulty — sourcing brick for an older Westmont home takes more effort than a common modern unit.
• Height and access — ground-level work versus chimney or upper-story brick that needs scaffolding.
• Related work — mortar joints, lintels, or waterproofing addressed at the same time.

We explain each factor on-site so nothing is a surprise, and the estimate is free. For your home, call (708) 448-8866.

Where brick repair connects to the rest of your masonry

Failed brick and failed mortar travel together. If the joints around your brick are opening up, tuckpointing and repointing restores them so the new brick is not left exposed to the same water. The full scope of our brick work — repair, replacement, and rebuilding — is on our brick repair page. And homeowners in neighboring Downers Grove call us for the same freeze-thaw brick failures on the same era of DuPage housing.

Paul Lally's Masonry is a family-owned, licensed and insured masonry contractor serving Chicago and the Chicagoland suburbs since 1988 — tuckpointing, brick repair and replacement, chimney repair and rebuilds, lintel replacement, masonry restoration, and waterproofing for residential and commercial properties. Built on Craftsmanship. Backed by Experience. Free on-site estimates — call (708) 448-8866.

Why Westmont homeowners trust Paul Lally's Masonry

Since 1988 our family name has been on every job, so we fix brick the way we would on our own home — find the real cause, match the brick so you cannot tell where the repair ends, and stand behind the work. No upsell, no oversized scope, no cutting corners on the mortar behind the brick. Built on Craftsmanship. Backed by Experience.

If brick on your Westmont home is flaking, cracking, or working loose, catch it before the whole section goes. Request a free on-site estimate or call (708) 448-8866 — and keep the brick you have from becoming a wall you have to rebuild.