10 Jun How to Protect the Concrete and Brick on Your Building

If you have a building constructed with concrete, brick or both, it is crucial you engage in proper masonry weatherproofing techniques to protect those materials for decades to come. Here’s a quick overview of what you should know about protecting your Indianapolis, IN building with caulking sealants and waterproofing agents.

Concrete

If exposed to moisture, concrete can erode over an extended period of time. The difficult thing with concrete is that you likely won’t notice this erosion until it’s too late. If you can already see the water damage, that means the structural integrity has already probably been compromised inside the material. There’s also the possibility that moisture damage can create mold and mildew, which, if left unchecked, can cause significant structural damage and potential health problems to anyone exposed to the spores.

This is why it’s important to be proactive with your weatherproofing processes. Ultimately, you can expect to save a significant amount of time, money and labor on maintenance in the future if you stay on top of your waterproofing processes.

Brick

Brick is most likely to be affected by water expansion during the changing seasons. If water goes through the pores of a brick or gets through cracks in the bricks or mortar, it will freeze and expand during the winter, causing cracks to form in the surface. The severity of this cracking may continue to increase until the damage can be repaired—otherwise, you can expect it to continue to worsen until you experience complete wall failure.

Water can draw salts into the brick walls, and the salt crystals (known as florescence) will form on the surface of the brick or inside its pores. When on the brick itself, it’s referred to as efflorescence, which is more of an aesthetic blight than anything. But when it appears in the pores of the brick (a condition known as cryptoflorescence), it can trap water in the pores, resulting in a greater potential for damage caused by freezing and expansion.

Adequate sealing

Both brick and concrete walls should be adequately sealed as a means of weatherproofing to prevent moisture from getting inside and causing damage. You can use caulking sealants and waterproofing agents for this process in Indianapolis, IN, though many of these are considered water-repellant rather than entirely waterproof. Still, at the very least you can expect them to have an effect on the wall’s ability to retain water. Rather than sucking the water in, it will repel it out. These types of sealants can also fill up small cracks or separations in masonry walls to provide extra protection against potential damage caused by water seeping in and expanding.

To get more information about the tasks you’ll need to stay on top of if you are to sufficiently protect your masonry walls for an extended period of time, we encourage you to reach out to the team at Knauss Property Services, LLC to learn more about masonry restoration in Indianapolis, IN. We look forward to working with you soon.