LESLIE: Larry in New York is having a problem at his brick house. Tell us about it.
LARRY: Yeah, I just bought a 1950s brick house. It’s the natural brick. Not a lot but a couple of the bricks are cracking and crumbling. I just wanted to know if there’s regular maintenance you should do on the brick house; if there’s any kind of sealer or something that you should put. We really don’t want to paint it. We like the natural color of the brick.
TOM: Probably not. I wouldn’t recommend a sealer unless you were having any kind of a leak issue. Only occasionally do we recommend that. The one thing that you can do is if you get cracks in the brick you do want to seal up those cracks to prevent water intrusion because the water gets in there and then it freezes and it causes the brick to crack or spall. And so, to caulk them you simply want to use a clear silicone caulk or you could use one that’s tinted to match the brick color.
LARRY: Oh, excellent. Now, does that apply with like indoor fireplaces as well?
TOM: No, because you don’t have to worry about water getting in them.
LARRY: Ah, very good. OK. Excellent. Thank you very much.
TOM: You’re welcome, Larry. Thanks so much for calling us at 888-MONEY-PIT.
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