At McFall Masonry & Construction we offer many services. We install all types of masonry including flagstone, brick, chopped rock, builders rock, countertops, and fabricated stone. Many of these types of natural products can be sealed and at times should be sealed.
We offer repair to brick and mortar to the exterior of your home. We have repaired 100s if not 1000s of homes. There are times that some of these repairs involve the problem of water getting into them. It can drive us crazy at times trying to find the leak! Often the leaks will be around windows and try as we will, the leaks continue even after we have re-pointed or fixed all the mortar, checked and rechecked the caulking around windows, checked for loose bricks, the list goes on, and yet, sometimes the leak continues. It is at this point that we will actually take a clear, industrial strength sealant and apply it to the entire area where the leak is occurring and the problem is gone. This tells us that the leak was actually rain or water from sprinklers was going right through the mortar and probably through a void in the moisture barrier behind the brick and into the home, and sealing the brick took care of the problem!
The sealing of flagstone is sometimes a method to brighten up an area. Most of the time when you have flagstone on a patio, or veneer on an outdoor kitchen, coping around a pool, perhaps inside the home where flagstone was used for a rustic look on countertops or an interior fireplace, or a ranch style home where you have a flagstone floor. Sealing these applications with the correct sealant will help preserve the flagstone so it doesn’t peel or flake away causing problems and changing the look of the product. One more great aspect of sealing the flagstone is that it will bring out the colors of the flagstone. If you already have flagstone at your home, go and spray water on it, notice how different the stone looks, it’s brighter, the colors just pop out at you, making your flagstone more appealing and looking new all the time. The sealant will give your flagstone even nicer look than just getting it wet. At McFall Masonry & Construction we will advise you on the proper sealant to be used.
Another type of sealant that is important but not seen is sealing the back of retaining walls, house foundations, and stone planters. This protects the masonry from the moisture that will rest up against the back of these walls. If moisture stays on the back of these walls it can eventually erode the stone and cause damage. The moisture will, at times, also cause the lime that is in the mortar to re-appear in it’s white powder form on the front of your stone and if not cleaned off will crystallize and stay on your stone, and it’s not very pretty. Sealing the back of these walls will help with prevention.
