What is the difference between tuckpointing and repointing?
Tuckpointing is a very old English technique that disguises wide mortar joints as more narrow ones. Historically, masons would point the building with a mortar that was tinted to look like the surrounding mortar units, and then they would cut a channel into this flush joint. They would fill this channel with a mortar of a contrasting color that would then appear to be the mortar joint. Over time, the term “tuckpointing” has become disassociated from this original meaning, and it is often used synonymously with “repointing,” which involves the removal of deteriorated mortar and the application of new mortar. One key difference is that in common usage the term “tuckpointing” doesn’t generally involve the removal of old deteriorated mortar.
