Brick is some seriously durable stuff—clay bricks commonly endure for a century or longer, and there are plenty of examples of brick structures that are much older than that. If you have a brick home ...

Last week, I fielded no fewer than five phone calls from homeowners with the same grim news. They found it nearly impossible to get quotes from contractors to do fairly simple repairs. Each caller’s ...

We've all seen it: The brick or stone wall where the mortar is all powdery, cracked or non-existent. "Mortar can disintegrate over time because of weather as a result of the freeze-thaw cycles. The ...

Dear James: I just converted my old one-car garage into a study and built a new two-car garage. I would like to install some type of decorative or unique driveway to it. What options do I have? — ...

Tuckpointing—not repointing—brick can increase its lifespan while improving its appearance. How to tell if your home needs it. What is tuckpointing? If you've ever renovated a brick or stone structure ...

Short of a bronze front door and a uniformed doorman, few things class up the front of a house more than a circular brick driveway. Black asphalt just doesn't have the opulent look of brick and stone ...

The driveway that came with the 1921 Craftsman-style house that David Ulick bought five years ago was the original concrete one, marred by cracks and with tree roots starting to break through. "I didn ...