LESLIE: Bruce, with a brick moisture question, you’ve got The Money Pit. How can we help you today?
BRUCE: The house I’m in was built in ‘78. In the past year, year-and-a-half, during the winter I’m getting this white frost that’s coming off the bricks. And I didn’t know whether that’s something to worry about or not.
TOM: Well, what it means is you’re getting a lot of brick moisture. And the brick’s very hydroscopic, so it soaks up water like a sponge. And so, if there’s a lot of moisture along the outside of it, what’ll happen is that water will suck through and it’ll evaporate and then leaves behind its mineral salts.
What you might need to do is to seal the chimney. And you can do that with a masonry sealer that – you want to make sure you pick one that’s vapor-permeable, because it’ll breathe. And that will stop so much of the – a lot of the brick moisture from showing up on the inside of the house.
BRUCE: Gotcha. Is there a certain brand or certain type I should be looking at?
TOM: Yeah, most of them are silicone-based. And just make sure it says that it’s vapor-permeable, that it breathes.
BRUCE: OK, OK. Well, I’m going to hit the floor now then. I’m worried about it.
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