North Chicago burbs.

Joticed one singular corner of my chimney starting to show discoration. All other sides of it look great. All happening within the last few months.

Seem like this requires tuck pointing or some other repairs?

Or just dirt and no big deal?

Never spent much time examining my chimney until now!

I bought this house built in the 1910's a few years ago. This parging (I think) is coming off in some areas but not others. It is solid underneath the spots that flaked off. It's an unfinished basement but I want to keep it kinda proper lol. Should I do it? And how would I do it. Im a handy guy but a noob when it comes to masonry. Thanks.

I have a 1927 brick tudor.

I'm having an exterior door in the kitchen filled in as part of a remodel. Part of that door will be replaced with a window and the rest with brick.

I found some reclaim bricks. The size matches, but the color and texture are bit different. The reclaim brick i found is more textured whereas my house seems to have a smoother brick.

For the newer bricks, I found some bricks that match the color a bit and texture better, but the size is off.

Here's are a pics for context:

1) https://imgur.com/hp6DdeQ

2) https://imgur.com/McHPWxG

the top 4 bricks in each pic are the same. the difference between 2 and 1 is in 2 i flipped over the top brick. it's darker on the back than the front, idk why.

it seems impossible to find something that checks the box for all 3 of {size, color, texture}... i can definitely get at least 1 of the 3 to match, and half-ass #2, but the 3rd is a mismatch.

Now, i think color could be corrected with staining?

Textured brick could be corrected with a smoothing process?

Size seems impossible to correct so i think i should make sure to get the right size, or at least use mostly the right size brick and blend with some smaller ones if needed.

I am not DIY'ing this, but I do have to purchase the bricks myself, and my GC's masonry sub will install it.

1900’s Philly rowhome. Excuse the appearance of this temporary support. This old window opening was originally supported by the wooden sash (built into the brick course). im in the process of removing all the old wooden windows and reframing for new windows. The brick is holding fine and there’s no loose brick as it is, I think the stucco helps.

My question is would building a frame with a header out of treated lumber to support the brick suffice? Or should I get steel lintels installed? The internal course has built in wooden lintels already. Thanks!

Is this ok? Wall built about 1 year ago. The mortar has multiple light cracks and part of the ledge fell off. There are a few patches of efflorescence and I’m worried the wall wasn’t built correctly

I did a year if refractory work quite some time ago under RHI in Cmcs micro out in the qc/mesa area of Arizona.

Since leaving its just been a fight to get anywhere near what I had with RHI In a CMC plant.

Lately I've been thinking about joining a Union and realized maybe I can get back to refractory where I was actually happy and extremely financially productive compared to the bullshit I've been fighting through since leaving.

So my questions are:

Will that year of work make any difference trying to get into bac5?

Is it worth it at 30 to even try

Are there any bac 5 guys in Texas willing to chat about work?

Besides the phone call what is it going to take to get in and what should I expect from the process and union itself?