Chimney Tuckpointing Services

Restore the strength and appearance of your chimney with professional chimney tuckpointing from Chimney Monkey. Over time, mortar joints can crack, crumble, or wash away. This not only weakens the chimney but also exposes it to serious moisture damage.

Why Choose Chimney Tuckpointing?

Our skilled team uses high-quality mortar and precise techniques to remove deteriorated joints and replace them with durable, fresh material. As a result, you’ll enjoy a chimney that is stronger, safer, and more visually appealing. Regular tuckpointing also helps extend the lifespan of your masonry and reduces costly repairs in the future.

• ✔ Reinforces chimney structure for long-term stability
• ✔ Prevents water infiltration and brick damage
• ✔ Enhances appearance and boosts property value

Comprehensive Chimney Care

Whether your chimney requires a small repair or a complete tuckpointing restoration, Chimney Monkey has you covered. Our technicians provide clear assessments and expert recommendations to ensure your chimney remains in excellent condition.

Proudly Serving Chicago’s North Shore

With years of experience and thousands of satisfied customers, our team continues to deliver exceptional chimney care across the North Shore. We’re dedicated to protecting your home year-round while expanding our reach to new towns every season. Our growing team ensures prompt, reliable service—wherever you are.

Core Service Areas

We proudly serve these core North Shore communities:

Extended Service Areas

We also cover these nearby areas:

No matter where you live across the North Shore, Chimney Monkey is ready to help—with fast response times and service tailored to your home.

📞 Call Chimney Monkey at (847) 994-4388 and let us take care of your chimney needs!



What tuckpointing actually means

Strictly, tuckpointing is a decorative technique using two colours of mortar. In American usage it has come to mean repointing: cutting out mortar that has failed and replacing it with fresh. That is the work described here, and it is the most cost-effective structural maintenance a masonry chimney ever receives.

How to tell your joints are gone

Drag a key or a screwdriver along a mortar joint. Sound mortar resists; failed mortar crumbles and falls out. Look for shadow lines and visible gaps between bricks, for sand collecting at the base of the chimney after rain, and for joints that have receded more than about a quarter of an inch behind the face of the brick. On a chimney, check the north and west elevations first, because they take the weather.

Why mortar matching matters

This is the part cheap jobs get wrong. Mortar is supposed to be weaker than the brick it holds, so that movement and moisture wear the joint rather than the masonry. Older Chicago homes were built with soft, lime-rich mortar and relatively soft brick. Pack a modern high-cement mix into those joints and the brick becomes the weakest element, so instead of eroding mortar you get spalling brick faces. We match strength, colour and joint profile to the original.

How the work is done

Failed mortar is cut out to a consistent depth, generally around two and a half times the joint width, using grinders and hand tools with care taken not to nick the brick arrises. Joints are cleaned and dampened, the new mortar is packed in layers rather than one deep fill, and the joint is tooled to match the original profile once it has reached thumbprint firmness. Then it is protected while it cures.

Repoint or rebuild

Repointing works when the brick is sound and the mortar has failed. Where brick faces have spalled through, where the stack leans, or where the joints are so deep that there is nothing solid to pack against, a rebuild of the affected section is the durable answer. We will tell you which you are looking at. See masonry repair.

Season and scheduling

Mortar has to cure above roughly forty degrees and must not freeze while it does, so the working window on the North Shore runs spring into autumn. We inspect all year, which means booking the assessment in late winter usually gets you the first slots of the season.

What it costs

Height and roof access first, then the linear footage of joint being cut out, then whether the chimney needs a crown or cap addressed at the same time – which it very often does, since the water that destroyed the joints came in from somewhere. Every quote follows a chimney inspection with photographs. Related: chimney repair and crown repair.

For a tuckpointing assessment across Cook and Lake Counties, call 847 994 4388.

What tuckpointing costs

The most useful planning figure is roughly $7 to $10 per brick — count the bricks in the section with failed joints and you have a working estimate. The real number depends on joint depth, mortar matching, chimney height, and access. We put the exact price in writing after a $205 inspection documents the extent. More detail is on our chimney repair cost page.